


Manatale

by chibilysis (xyrilyn)



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Blood and Gore, Breaking the Fourth Wall, Character Death, Constructed Reality, F/F, F/M, Family Drama, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Human Experimentation, Manatale, Manatale AU, Memory Alteration, Memory Loss, Multi, Multiple Dimensions, Possession, Psychological Trauma, Reader Is Not Frisk, Science I Made Up, Sharing a Body, Sharing a soul, Slow Burn, Torture, Undertale Saves and Resets, Unethical Experimentation, reader is female
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-07-12 08:44:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 42,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7094779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xyrilyn/pseuds/chibilysis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where neither Humans nor Monsters won the war, LOVE and EXP became a means of quantifying a person’s threat level - their homicidal tendency.</p><p>To ensure peace between the two races, anyone found with a high enough LOVE and EXP were immediately imprisoned and/or sentenced to death.</p><p>The Humans and Monsters who enforced this new law were known as the Executors.</p><p>Some time later, blueprints of the DT-Extractor Machine - the one created by the late Royal Scientist, W. D. Gaster - were found to had been stolen. A new black market business appeared: Liquid Determination (LD) and Liquid Mana (LM) Extraction - they became a new currency of the black market.</p><p>Amidst all of this, Resets were still occurring and the only ones who remember anything about the past timelines at all were Frisk and Sans. Reset after Reset, hardly anything ever changed in every timeline until-</p><p>-one day, Sans met a human who had an unreadable LOVE and EXP.</p><p>// Currently on indefinite hiatus. I'm working on other stories and this one will most likely be re-written to be Sans-centric in the future due to some issues with the plot. Sorry. [ July 29th 2017 ]//</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sans I - III

**Author's Note:**

> Hello world! ; v ; //  
> This is my very first time posting on this site - so I'm really hyped up about writing this, hehe~  
> That being said, this is my very first time writing a fanfic, so please go easy on me! ; u ;
> 
> I'm in it for the long run now because I am determined to see this through until the end, so... without further ado, I hope you enjoy this story! ; v ;
> 
> \- chibilysis

It didn't come as a surprise that Sans and several other monsters were chosen to be part of the team. Undyne would be - without any shred of doubt - the leader of said team, of course. She had the stats and experience and everything, after all. As the former Head of the Royal Guard, Undyne was the best monster for the job. No one opposed to her taking the role besides herself - her primary reason being: 'who would guard the Monster Kingdom and hunt down suspicious humans, then?'

Well, thankfully, no humans were around to hear Undyne say that, so no blood had to be shed.

Anyway, Papyrus was ecstatic about the job. While he didn't exactly get the job he'd always wanted, he was still contributing to the safety of the Monsters as a whole and that was all that mattered to him, really. Sans was honestly very concerned - and rather angry - over Papyrus' joining the team, but was placated by King Asgore when he said that Papyrus would only be doing rounds in the... 'less problematic areas'. The monsters with higher stats got the jobs of patrolling the 'more problematic areas' and investigating the higher profile cases, much to Sans' relief - Papyrus would never be able to handle the insane EXP-fanatics out there; he would be dusted the moment those psychopaths laid their eyes on him.

And then there was Sans.

Going by HP alone, he shouldn't even be in the team - let alone the scout of said team. Asgore had somehow found out that Sans could see how much LOVE and EXP a person can have without the aid of Alphys' invention, so the role of scout had been assigned to Sans just like that. Well, one thing Sans was glad about was that, as a scout, he simply needed to carry out reconnaissance and report back to headquarters - that's it. No all-out fighting, throwing magic here and there, spilling blood all over the place, et cetera. It was a rather peaceful and relaxed role, actually - which suited him perfectly.

The one thing he probably hated about all of this was the name they had given to those like him.

Sans never liked the name they had given them. 'The Executors' - Sheesh, it made it sound like their main job was to kill people.

As Executors, they were tasked with the duty of executing the latest law to be implemented in the Monster Kingdom: "All beings - regardless of race - possessing a level of LOVE and EXP above a particular threshold as determined by the Kingdom, will face immediate imprisonment and/or punishment as deemed necessary by the Kingdom". The exact same law had been implemented at the same time in the Human Kingdom, too - which led Sans to believe that this was actually pre-arranged between the leaders of the two kingdoms. Was it to ensure this continued illusion of peace? Whatever their motives were, Sans didn't really care.

As long as he helped curb the number of dusty humans out there - thus minimising the possibility of any genocides happening in the near future - Sans really couldn't bring himself to care.

. . .

Sans blinked into existence at a nearby rooftop. Ducking into the shadows, he watched as the dusty humans on the street below continued their nightly prowl for unsuspecting victims.

Their LOVE and EXP levels were far beyond what was allowed - that immediately marked them as potential targets. Sans sent their coordinates back to headquarters and waited for an affirmative response from HQ before teleporting back to the edge of Mt. Ebott where he began the trek up the mountain to reach the entrance into the Underground. Over the years, humans had build their towns and houses around Mt. Ebott and with them being so close to the Underground where many monsters still resided in, that meant that regular patrols had to be conducted even in Human territory. The Human Kingdom had their own team of Executors to track and hunt down those with high levels of LOVE, but for obvious reasons, the Monsters didn't trust them - and so, that left Sans and his team with the job of patrolling the area, too.

Sans never liked lingering in Human territory for too long, so he always teleported in, did a quick survey about the place, reported any potential targets he found, and then immediately teleported out.

To conserve mana, he would usually only teleport himself to the edge of Human territory - the foot of Mt. Ebott - and then climb up from there. He liked climbing the mountain anyway because of the sights he got to see, so he didn't mind the extra time and effort needed.

Stuffing his hands into his jacket's pockets, he began the long climb through the darkness. He knew the route by heart now, considering the number of times he'd done this already.

He reached home without meeting anyone along the way. Stepping inside, he found that they had a guest.

"Welcome home, Sans!" a warm, familiar voice greeted him. It put a small smile on his face.

"Hey there, kiddo. I'm not trying to say that you're not welcome here, but what cha' doing all the way here?" Sans asked as he settled down on the couch in the living room. The kid took a seat right beside him.

"I sort of told mom that I missed you two, so she accompanied me here while she's running some errands here in Snowdin!" Frisk smiled widely at him and Sans couldn't help but return that smile as he leaned over to ruffle their hair. Frisk grumbled at having their hair all messed up, but Sans knew they secretly liked it.

"Where's Paps? I'd expected him to be home by now..."

"Well... he got this phone call and then after that, he said he had to drop by the headquarters for something... He didn't mention what, though," Frisk answered. Sans felt a twinge of concern at that. He briefly entertained the thought of going over there himself - just to check on things, ya know? - but he believed Papyrus could handle himself just fine. Well, he hoped that was the case. As if they could read his thoughts, Frisk gently placed a comforting hand on his arm.

"It didn't sound like he was being sent on a mission, so you don't have to worry, Sans."

"I hope that's the case... Who knows what's going on in headquarters," Sans muttered as he crossed his arms. Frisk sighed and shook their head at his attitude.

"Anyway, how about having something to eat? Papyrus left dinner for you on the table. I'll go over and help you heat it up," Frisk suggested. Sans was just about to get up and offer to do it himself, but Frisk beat him to it.

"No. You stay here and rest your tired boney feet for a while - I know you hiked all the way up here, so don't bother persuading me otherwise," Frisk said with a tone of finality in their voice before striding over and disappearing into the kitchen.

Sans fell back onto the couch with a sigh. Frisk was way too observant some times.

Beep, beep.

His phone came to life then. He flicked it open and his eyes flitted across the text on the screen. He deleted the message in a heartbeat - it was just a mission update. Apparently, the targets he had reported earlier had already been arrested. Undyne was working over-time tonight, too, it seemed.

'alright, noted.' Sans hit the send button and then closed the app.

This system of sending and receiving encrypted messages through their cellphones was invented by Alphys - she made it such that it was installable as an app in their phones so they didn't need to carry any suspicious-looking communication gear while out in the field. Alphys' LOVE and EXP Detector worked in the same way as well. He didn't know how that particular app worked though because he never had to use his.

"Alright, here ya go." Frisk reappeared with a plate of spaghetti in their hands.

Sans nodded his thanks, taking the plate and cutlery as Frisk plopped down on the couch beside him again and went to switch on the television. Neither paid any attention to the re-run of one of Mettaton's shows that was currently being aired on the television.

"How did the job go?" Frisk began.

"It went smoothly, I guess. The humans I reported tonight were just small fry anyway. We still don't have any leads on the group behind the Soul Extraction." Sans twirled some spaghetti around his fork absentmindedly.

"They're still out there, then..."

"Sucking the life out of Souls from Humans and Monsters alike; yes." Sans sighed.

"It's not your fault, Sans-"

"I worked on the DT-Extractor Project with the others all those years ago - how can this possibly not be my fault?" Sans raised his voice then, causing Frisk to tense up. He heaved another sigh and mumbled an apology for shouting. In a quieter voice, he continued.

"And now a group of madmen are out there have reconfigured the machine to extract Mana from Monster Souls..." Sans scooped some more spaghetti into his mouth. Frisk remained quiet.

"The next Reset is coming soon... right?"

Sans nodded. "Yeah. We'll have to prepare ourselves for that if it actually happens. Going by all the similarities in this timeline, we'll probably be sent back to one of the starting points we have already determined."

"We're back to square one, then, if it happens..." Frisk said, frowning.

He nodded again. "Yeah. Unfortunately."

He finished the remainder of his spaghetti in relative silence. They said nothing more on the matter. Papyrus returned home some time later and Frisk put on a wide smile for him. Toriel dropped by soon afterwards to pick up Frisk. Sans... couldn’t really manage a smile then. He blamed it on his exhaustion and quickly excused himself before Papyrus or Toriel could realise anything was wrong.

Once back in the privacy of his own room, Sans collapsed onto his bed. He was just... so tired.

He fell into the arms of Morpheus soon after.

. . .

His return to wakefulness was slow and mildly disorienting. Repeatedly blinking his eyes, the foggy shapes and colours cleared, revealing the familiar sight of his own room. Somewhere to his right, streaks of sunlight poured in from behind the blinds.

Throwing the covers off, he trudged over to the bathroom. Instinctively, he flicked on the light switch with his magic before stepping in front of the mirror and sink. Sans scrutinised his reflection in the mirror.

Damn. He looked like crap - like he hadn't slept in ages.

Turning on the tap, he began pooling water in his hands with all the intention of splashing some on his face to wake himself up, but he immediately thought better of it and released his hands. He turned off the tap and watched idly as the water drained down the pipe. Exiting the bathroom - again, using magic to switch off the lights - he made a beeline towards his wardrobe and quickly changed into a fresh set of clothes before leaving the room. As he was climbing down the stairs, he realised that someone was already occupying the couch space.

"Frisk."

They shared a single, knowing glance. Sans felt like he had been submerged into icy waters.

"Good morning, Sans," they greeted softly.

"It's funny how you're the one saying that when you of all people know just how shitty this morning will become," Sans remarked, bitterness seeping into his voice. Damn; that was entirely uncalled for - he usually wouldn't snap at Frisk for things like this.

"I was just being polite, you know..." They mumbled quietly. Sans sighed.

"Yeah, I know... Sorry about that," Sans replied, scratching the back of his skull guiltily.

"I'll come and look for you as soon as I can, alright?" Frisk reassured him. He nodded.

"I'll be waiting," Sans replied as he waved them good-bye. Frisk waved back with a slightly strained smile - he could see that their smile wasn't as wide as it should be. It was comforting to know that he wasn't the only one who was being affected by this - that he wasn't alone in the midst of all these Resets. He reached the door in several strides and moments later, he was out the door.

His left eye flared into life as he blinked into headquarters.

Like always, the headquarters was in absolute chaos.

Monsters flitted about the place, some screaming orders and reports, others scrambling to put together equipment. Sans calmly stood in the middle of it all. Undyne was crossing the length of the docking bay when she saw him.

"Sans! Report to Asgore immediately, this is a Delta-priority mission," Undyne exclaimed in a hurry before hurrying off to assemble the Canine Unit and shouting more instructions. As he was walking towards the eastern wing of the building, the alarms flared and more monsters scrambled past him towards the docking bay that he had been just in. It was the evacuation team that had just been dispatched, Sans realised.

By the time Sans reached Asgore's office, a strange calmness had settled over him. He entered without knocking. Asgore stood with his back facing him as he looked out the window and over the Monster Kingdom. Inside the office, it was completely silent.

"I dreaded the coming of this day, Sans. I always knew something like this would happen one day... but for it to happen so soon?"

Sans swallowed thickly, unsure of what he should say. Even after so many Resets, he still didn't know what to say.

"Those... fools have created an abomination of nature using the Determination and Mana they extracted and now... their glorious experiment has failed and is falling apart, bringing with it a DTM-meltdown of an unimaginable scale." Asgore turned around, his face grim and cold.

"At the current rate of diminishing stability, the meltdown will take out at least 50% of the Monster Kingdom and at least 95% of the Human Kingdom. The levels of Determination are so high that not even Humans will be able to survive absorbing that much Determination - their Souls will disintegrate due to instability. And let's not even discuss what will happen if Humans or Monsters are exposed to Mana of such concentration."

Sans remained quiet.

"I know how opposed you are to using your abilities for killing and gaining LOVE and EXP... but alas, I have no other choice but to ask that you fight for us, Sans," Asgore pleaded, his entire frame tense and his eyes burning with a loathing so strong that it still shocked Sans to see.

"I can't just watch and let this happen," came Sans' reply. Asgore simply nodded in understanding.

"I understand. I hope to see you after this fight in my office."

'Don't die on us,' was the unspoken message.

Sans met his gaze head on. "I'm too attached to my bonely self to let whoever who created that abomination dust me. Besides, I have a skele-ton of tricks up my sleeve that they haven't seen yet," Sans shrugged casually, trying his best to put on air of confidence even though he already knew how this was all going to play out.

If Asgore realised this, he didn't mention it. "You're running solo on this one. Execute your task as you see fit."

Sans grinned.

The events that followed all blurred together.

He recalled blasting the entire laboratory to smithereens with overpowered blasters - taking out whoever that was still inside. As the fight carried on, he felt his strength and magic increasing as more EXP poured into his soul. He shuddered with disgust at the very thought. He poured more and more magic into his blasters, killing off the lot of them as their bodies disintegrated into nothing as his blasters hit them dead on. He was giving it his all - he was trying so hard - but was it going to be enough?

His left eye flared as he summoned more bones to hurl at his targets. They flew true and pierced their targets with a horrible crunching sound and Sans did his best to block it all out. All around him, monsters were fighting to get deeper into the laboratory - to destroy the source of the meltdown before the meltdown actually happened. Monsters weren't the only ones fighting humans, though. Some humans - the ones that had the sense to understand what the meltdown would entail - pitched in and helped as well. Sans recognised some Human Executors in that bunch.

Sans was at the forefront of the fight, using his blasters to blast his way through defences before teleporting past the carnage and further inside. Having done this sort of thing so many times before, he mentally blocked out the gruesome display all around him and focused solely on the task at hand.

Before long, he successfully entered the Core.

The entire place was dimly lit up by bioluminescent crystals. Dozens of pipes branched off from the central glass pod of the Core to the walls surrounding it. The machines hummed as they did their job. The huge central pod glowed bright crimson in the dark, dousing the entire room in a soft red glow. It was a tank pumped full with a highly concentrated mixture of Liquid Determination and Mana.

The very thought of how many Souls needed to be sacrificed for this sent shivers down his spine.

Somewhere inside the pod, he knew there was an abomination created by the Humans as the ultimate weapon against Monsters. Based on the reports he had read, it had been created using Determination and Mana, and had been fed huge amounts of Determination and Mana throughout its entire lifespan. Its physical body had somehow remained stable the entire time.

Until they decided to pump even more Determination and Mana into it and conduct further tests just to see where its limitations lie.

'Idiots.' Sans cursed under his breath.

As he approached the pod while riding one of his blasters, he saw something move inside of it. Something pale and small struck the inside of the pod suddenly and Sans flinched back. This... was new - it didn't happen in the previous timelines. Maybe, it was because he got here faster this time round. What appeared to be a hand plastered itself against the side of the pod. Its fingers twitched and spasmed. Another hand joined the first. And then two arms and a torso appeared.

Sans retreated from the pod as a face - a human face - appeared from within the red liquid in the pod. At least, he thought it was a face.

It was missing so many defining features of a face. It was missing its hair, ears, nose, an eye... Almost like it hadn't managed to grow those. It opened and closed its mouth repeatedly, as if struggling to speak. Its black eye was focused entirely on Sans. Sans suddenly felt a twinge of pity for this creature. He couldn't tell what it was trying to say or do and it seemed to be... in pain?

"I'm afraid that you're far too late."

A voice bellowed from below. By pure reflex, Sans fired a small blaster at the owner of said voice, watching expressionlessly as it tore through the man's lower torso. He collapsed to the floor immediately, sputtering and coughing up blood as he bled out.

"It was... the closest thing to God..." He cackled even as the pool of blood grew in size. "We made it real... We made it real!"

Sans couldn't take his insane ramblings any longer. He aimed another one of his blasters at the dying man and fired, coating the floor crimson.

"...And now... it will destroy... everyone..." With one final gurgle, the man's body went limp.

The sounds of glass cracking filled the room. Before Sans could react, he was blinded by a white light that filled the entire Core. Searing pain enveloped his entire being as he lost all feeling to his body. He felt his mind slipping into darkness as the pain overwhelmed everything. The light dissipated as soon as it came, leaving the world all around him spinning.

He was falling, faster and faster.

Amidst the burning pain and swirling blurriness, he swore he heard someone screaming.


	2. Sans IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omigosh - I can't believe the response I've gotten from you guys for just the first chapter. You guys are awesome! C: Thank you for all the support! ; v ;
> 
> I'm trying out a new way of writing - one that involves as few exposition chunks as possible. I'm liking it so far, but I'm not sure what people who read my story will think of it. If possible, do tell me what you think in the comments? I hope to learn lots from writing this story, so any critique/comments are much appreciated! ; v ;
> 
> You can also find this story on tumblr at: http://manatale-undertaleau.tumblr.com/  
> Drop me a message/ask if you'd like! I don't bite! ; u ;
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter! <3
> 
> \- chibilysis
> 
> P.S. Feel free to replace ( Y / N ) with your name / a name for a more personalised reading experience. ; v ;

Gasping for breath, he found himself standing in his sentry station in the next instant. His mind scrambled to catch up.

He... had just been obliterated in the meltdown. No, something was different in that timeline. The screaming he'd heard moments before he died and the creature that he had seen within the pod. Those two events didn't take place in the previous timelines. He... hadn't done anything drastically different in that timeline, so perhaps it was sheer coincidence? Perhaps his arriving in the Core earlier had set up the conditions necessary for those events to take place? Regardless, those minor changes gave him brand new information to work with. He didn't like to keep his hopes up, but...

Sans shook his head. Regardless, he needed to find Frisk first. They must be as shaken as him. He pulled out his phone to check the date. 2nd June 2068. Alright, that put them back around... fourteen months. Usually the Resets took them back a couple of months, but occasionally the Resets took them back further than a year. Neither of them had any clue as to why this happens. Frisk had mentioned that it was possible that the individual behind the Resets didn't SAVE very often - leading to the large intervals between timelines - and that the person didn't have any control over which SAVES they could LOAD. That theory sounded entirely plausible, but it didn't help much when it came to uncovering the individual's identity. Frisk and Sans had given up trying to find out the person's identity a long time ago - there was simply no feasible way of finding out who was causing the Resets. The only clues they had so far weren't exactly helpful, either.

Instead, they focused on gathering information about the group who caused the meltdown in the first place. It was a gruelling process, but... they kept at it - even through all the different timelines.

Sans speed-dialled Frisk's number. They picked up almost instantly.

"Frisk?"

"...Sans." The relief in their voice was so evident that Sans found himself smiling upon hearing it.

"I'm fine. Something changed before the meltdown happened though," Sans said, not wasting a single breath. Frisk gasped on the other side of the line.

"I'm at home right now. Mom's not in. You wanna talk about it?"

"Yeah. I'll come over now." He hung up after that.

Pocketing his phone, he gathered his energy and teleported, reappearing in Toriel's living room a moment later. Sans glanced around and found Frisk at the foot of the staircase already. Frisk quite literally threw themselves into an embrace, sending Sans staggering back a few steps.

"Tell me all about it," Frisk said, determination colouring their voice.

Sans did. As well as he could anyway. By the end of it all, the two of them sat on the couch in grim silence. Sans turned to look at Frisk - their expression betrayed nothing of their thoughts. Sans still remembered how Frisk was like many years ago when they first met - they were a bundle of joy and practically radiated determination and energy. To think that these Resets had worn them down to their current state... Frisk was still the most determined human Sans had ever met, but, there was now a darker, more jaded side to them now. Despite being only eighteen, Frisk possessed a maturity far beyond their years - owing to the fact that she had already lived more years than what one would expect due to the constant Resets.

Sans had once asked why they were so affected by the Resets, even though they had been the one Resetting back during their Underground days. He'd have thought they had gotten used to it by now. It was a question asked out of pure curiosity. Sans hadn't meant anything by it, but Frisk clearly thought otherwise.

"I'm not in control of the Resets anymore. It was different when I was deciding when the Resets would happen - I could prepare myself, you know? Now... Everything I do and experience can easily become meaningless to me now, if I allow it, and I'm so tempted to let myself do it, just to ease the passing of days, as I'm sure you know."

Sans never brought the topic up ever again after that.

"So... we have fourteen months again. Well, might as well put them to good use, then." Frisk said, getting up from the couch. Sans followed suit.

"Let me dig around for a bit and see what I find," they said, determined.

"Don't get yourself hurt, kid."

"Of course, not," Frisk replied, waving off his concern. Sans sighed.

His shift was over by now already anyways, so he decided he should make good use of his time, too. "I'll roam the city and see what I can find." Frisk nodded before disappearing upstairs. Sans teleported out.

He didn't know how much time he'd spent outside, but by the time he realised it, night had fallen over the city already. Far below, humans carried on with their nightly lives in blissful ignorance of their impending doom. Sans envied their carefreeness. He pulled his hood up and melded into the shadows as he began his nightly prowl. He didn't encounter anything of interest, aside from a bunch of low EXP thugs. Eventually, he gravitated towards the site of the laboratory again - the one where the abomination would be created in the near future.

He had once tried reporting the location of the laboratory to headquarters so that a large-scale assault could be conducted, but somehow - as if the universe were conspiring against them - they would always retreat elsewhere before anything else could be done. That led Sans to believe that they had spies working in the headquarters as well - he stopped relaying certain pieces of information to headquarters, after that. Sans had even once tried barging into the place and brute-force his way through - but he always got dusted before entering the Core. They were simply too many guards for him to handle, especially if their focus were all on him.

That left him with no other option but to wait and observe for any irregularities that he could make use of. Sans sat himself down on the ledge of a nearby building and settled down for a long night-watch. He made sure he was properly covered by the shadows so that no one could spot him easily.

Somewhere along the way, Sans dozed off. He was jerked back into consciousness by some screaming happening somewhere below him. Turning his gaze downwards, he saw several guards - from the laboratory, too, going by how they were dressed - in pursuit of someone. His eyesockets widened at the sight. The person turned around the corner of the building Sans was currently perched on and he took that as his opportunity to make his move.

Teleporting down to street level, he reappeared right beside the person and grabbed them before he teleported again, this time, back to the top of the building where he was before. He released the person the moment they were out of harm's way. Now that he got a better look at the person, he saw that it was a female human. She swayed slightly as she tried to move, collapsing to her knees soon after. She took rapid, short breaths as she tried to regain her breath. Sans didn't make any move to try and help her.

"Hey there buddy. Saw that you were in a bit of a sticky situation there, so I decided to help ya out," Sans began nervously, unsure of how the stranger was going to take it. At this, the human looked up. She smiled, but didn't say anything.

"Not meaning to intrude or anything... But, why were those men after you?" Sans inquired, still keeping a polite distance between himself and the human stranger. He did glance over earlier and saw nothing that she could use as a weapon against him, but that didn't mean he was going to let his guard down.

She said nothing in response. Staring at Sans, she repeatedly opened and closed her mouth, brows furrowing with frustration.

"...Can't you speak?" Sans took a step closer then.

She reached up with one hand towards her neck and her fingers started grasping the air around it, as if she were tugging on an invisible collar. Sighing, she looked back up to Sans and shook her head.

"Judging from your reaction, you could speak before, am I right?" She nodded. 

"So, where do you live?"

She shook her head slowly in response, brows furrowed and eyes downcast. It was Sans' turn to heave a frustrated sigh now.

What was he supposed to do now? This was definitely a new occurrence. He hadn't managed to save anyone from the clutches of those maniacs in the laboratory before. Knowing that he messed with their plans, Sans couldn't help but feel a bit smug about what he'd just done. As for what to do with the human he had just rescued, though...

He felt like he should just drop her off at the nearest Human police station and wash his hands off from this - he really didn't want to be saddled with any more unnecessary problems by lingering in Human territory far longer than he should be. While being an Executor granted Sans the clearance to move through the Human Kingdom without any repercussions, he was currently off-duty and shouldn't be working - so his presence here would definitely raise questions. Speaking of which... he hadn't scanned the human's LOVE and EXP level yet. In his hurry to rescue her from her pursuers, he hadn't even thought of reading her Soul signature. Glancing back at the human, he took a good look at her Soul, just to see what her threat level was.

The moment he tried to do so, he was met with an ear-splitting ringing that forced him to break off eye contact due to the pain it caused in his head. The ringing subsided soon after, leaving behind traces of a newly-forming headache. 'W-What was that?' Sans wondered as he rubbed the sides of his skull to ease the pain - he hadn't even managed to get a proper reading from her Soul. It was as if he couldn't read anything from it, no - it felt more like he had been deflected. He glared at the human with renewed suspicion. Something wasn't right here.

Said human curled into herself slightly and averted her gaze upon seeing the glare Sans threw at her. Huh, so she was aware of what had just happened, then.

"Care to enlighten this bag of bones on what just happened?" The light in his eyes faded, leaving behind nothing but inky blackness.

When he didn't get any response, Sans did the first other thing that came to mind - besides interrogating the life out of the pathetic soul in front of him by any means necessary. He retrieved his phone and called Frisk.

"Hey Frisk," he mumbled into the phone the moment they had picked up. Sans glanced back at the human and found her staring back at him. This time, with thinly veiled fear in those obsidian eyes. She was shivering slightly.

"So, here's the thing..."

They talked for a while. He fidgeted around a bit as he explained the situation to them. After he was done explaining things, he asked Frisk for a favour.

"Is it alright if she stayed over at your place for the night? I can explain things to Tori if you want." Sans knew he was taking a risk here, but it didn't matter too much anyway. She wouldn't dare try anything after he had a talk with her. Besides, Frisk and Toriel weren't entirely helpless.

"It should be fine. I'll talk to mom about it - she's downstairs in the kitchen now. Gimme a moment, will ya? I'll call you back later," Frisk answered and Sans muttered an okay before hanging up. Sans turned back to the still nameless human. A few awkward minutes passed by before Sans spoke up.

"What's your name? You can just write the letters in the air for me to read." The human perked up at that and began doing just as he said. Sans raised a bony brow at that. How... strangely obedient.

"( Y / N )... huh?" Sans studied her for another moment.

"So, let me spell out the situation you're currently in, ( Y / N )," Sans began, his tone cold, "Things aren't looking bright for ya right now. I'm an Executor, you see. It's my job to remove people with high LOVE and EXP off the streets. To do so, I read their Souls and determine their respective LOVE and EXP levels. The thing I find so humerus now... is that I seemingly can't read yours," he finished.

"You can't hide your Soul - it's the very essence of your being. Sure, you can use things like physical matter and magic to shield it and all sorts of other things, but-"

Sans locked eyes with the human. She scrambled to move back, failing when her back hit the ledge.

"You can't fake a Soul signature. It follows you wherever you go." He paused. She still didn't say anything.

"C'mon human. Throw me a bone here. Tell me what's up with your Soul. We have all night long to talk about this. Just write it out for me to read, I'm a patient guy," Sans pushed and still, he got nothing. "Giving me the silent treatment, eh? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter for now."

"Lemme just give ya one piece of advice." Sans winked.

"Don't even think about harming anyone I care about, or you'd be dead where you stand. Got it?"

The sound of his phone ringing cut through the night air, diffusing the heavy tension that had fallen over them.

"Hey," he muttered into the phone.

"Mom said okay," came Frisk's voice from the other side of the line.

"O-Okay, then. What did you tell her?"

"The truth, silly." Sans' Soul gave a huge lurch upon hearing that.

"And... how did she take it?" He was almost afraid to face Toriel now.

"Well, she seemed happy that I didn't try to lie to her face, so I think all's well. She can have the spare room, mom said."

"Frisk..."

"Just take one of your shortcuts over already. It's getting late. We'll talk more tomorrow."

"Fine. I'll see you in a bit." He hung up after that.

Turning back to the human, Sans walked up to her and grabbed her arm, even as she tried to move away. "Don't think that I'm done with you just yet," was all he said before he teleported them both to Toriel's home. Frisk took over things from there and helped the human settle in for the night. The human didn't even flinch from their touches - that just showed how she was more comfortable around people of her own race than monsters, he supposed.

Toriel watched as Frisk helped the human up the stairs before turning to Sans.

"I won't ask any questions. Whatever you decide to do, just make sure you don't put yourself or anyone of us in danger."

It took a lot of willpower to hold back his flinch at those words. Her words hurt - a lot. They hurt a lot more than he'd like to admit. The accusation behind those words were clear - she still hadn't forgiven him for choosing this profession. Sans looked up at Toriel, his expression wrecked by guilt. When Toriel's icy gaze met his, he looked away.

'I... I don't have a choice, Tori.' He desperately wanted to convey those words, but his mouth couldn't form the words.

He didn't volunteer for all of this. Had he been given the choice, he would never choose this path of life. In the very first timeline, he and Papyrus had both turned down the job offer. They'd wanted their lives to remain peaceful. Sans made a living by being a physics lecturer in a Monster university while Papyrus was a chef. They were happy. Then, the meltdown happened and he was thrown back in time by a Reset. Even if he somehow survived the meltdown, a Reset happened soon after anyway, erasing all the progress he had achieved.

It was like being trapped in the Underground all over again.

The Resets in the Underground had forced him to relive the same few weeks over and over again. In some timelines, Frisk was the human who had been thrown in from the Human side of the barrier. In some others... another kid took their place - a human kid named Chara with crimson eyes and a lust for EXP. When it was Frisk, they only wanted to get back home - but that meant crossing the barrier from the Monster side, since the hole Frisk had fallen into worked one-way only. She only Reseted because she had gotten killed along the way when the monsters misinterpreted her actions as trying to trespass into Monster territory. When it was Chara... they pretty much murdered all the monsters in the Underground and triggered the second war between Humans and Monsters. He knew this because he had, in one timeline, lived long enough to witness it happen. In that particular timeline, Chara hadn't killed him. Instead, they kept him barely alive - bleeding and half-turning into dust - so that he could see the aftermath of their actions.

He shuddered just thinking about it.

The Underground Resets only stopped when Frisk decided to remain in the Underground with Toriel. It was a sudden decision by Frisk, one that had surprised Sans. He had been fully prepared for everything to Reset again a few weeks into their stay with Toriel, but nothing had happened. That was four years ago.

Had Sans been paying attention and not dwelling on the past, he would have realised that Toriel had reached out with an arm to pull the small skeleton into a hug, but withdrew it a moment later. The two of them stood in the middle of the room in silence.

Sans was the first to break the silence. "...I should be heading back. I wouldn't want Paps to start calling everyone in the Underground to ask if they'd seen me, heh. Thanks for everything, Tori." He didn't wait to see or hear her response. He spun around on his heel and made his way out. Closing the door behind him, he began the walk back to Snowdin.


	3. Human I - III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reader's appearance is deliberately left ambiguous.
> 
> Feel free to replace ( Y / N ) with the reader's name and ( Y / SC ) with the colour of soul you want for your reader. ; v ;
> 
> Options available are: Red - Determination, Light Blue (Cyan) - Patience, Orange - Bravery, Blue - Integrity, Purple - Perseverance, Green - Kindness, Yellow - Justice
> 
> //goes into rambling mode// Also, Sans' personality and reactions can be so difficult to write at times while trying to keep him in-character. *grumbles* //end-of-rambling//
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter! (not much happens, but oh well)
> 
> \- chibilysis

Hearing the door downstairs close shut, she released a breath she hadn't known she was holding. She closed the door leading to the room where she would be spending the night in.

The human - Frisk, as they had introduced themselves earlier - had helped her by giving her some spare clothes to use and showing where everything was in the room. She felt bad that she couldn't verbally express her gratitude - she hoped that the other understood, though. She leant her back against the wooden door and sighed.

"At least it w-worked, though," she muttered to herself. Damn, she needed to get used to using her voice again. It sounded hoarse now - she almost couldn't believe that was her voice.

She hadn't been sure if her plan would work. She was immensely glad it did. Sure, they almost killed her a few times back there, but it was worth it.

She was finally free. Free from the damned scientists who had an obsession of jabbing sharp, metal things into her body and Soul. She hated it when they hooked up her Soul to their machines in the laboratory. It hurt so much when they activated them. They brought her to the room with the machines once every week for their experiments - she hated it. She loathed all of them. They deserve to burn in hell for the things they were doing in that underground laboratory.

Grabbing the set of clothes Frisk had given her, she quickly headed into the en-suite bathroom and stripped. She turned on the shower and stepped under the spray, sighing with content at the feel of hot water running down her form. The heat helped ease her aching muscles and felt heavenly right now. She couldn't remember the last time she was allowed something as simple as a shower. She couldn't remember what she had been doing before she'd woken up, disoriented, inside that cursed research facility. She didn't remember a lot of things, basically.

Lathering some soap up, she cleaned herself before rinsing off and then donning the clothes Frisk had given her. It was a set of simple pyjamas, but to her, it was infinitely better than the hospital gown she had been forced to wear. She had just finished putting them on when someone knocked on her door.

"I'm sorry for bothering you at this time of the night, but... can I speak with you for a moment?"

It sounded like the female goat monster from earlier. Well, this was her house - she couldn't possibly say no, right? Walking over, ( Y / N ) opened the door. She half-expected to be questioned all night long, but that's fine with her - if it meant that she could stay.

"Are you alright, my child?"

The question about her well-being threw her off. She looked up at the goat lady in surprise. She hadn't expected that. Those words caused a strange warmth to bloom from within her Soul - it felt... nice.

She nodded in response and the goat lady smiled.

"I'm glad to hear that. I heard about your situation from Frisk, so I was quite worried," she began. "Oh, I didn't introduce myself, did I? My name is Toriel."

"My name's ( Y / N ). T-Thank you for letting me stay the night," she replied, smiling warmly. Her voice broke up throughout the sentence, so she hoped Toriel managed to catch what she had said.

"I understand that you may not want to leave any time soon, so you're welcome to stay longer if need be. Those who kidnapped you in the first place might still be out there looking for you," Toriel said, not giving her any room to argue back. She nodded.

"Thank you, but... are you sure it's okay?" Only the last part of the sentence came out right. 'Ugh, stupid voice.'

"Of course it is. Now, before I let you retire, I should at least tell you this."

Toriel sighed before continuing, "I don't know what Sans told you, but don't take his words to heart. Due to the nature of his profession, he hasn't exactly had the nicest experiences with humans."

( Y / N ) nodded in understanding. Toriel smiled at you again.

"Well, I shouldn't keep you up any longer. Good night, my child."

"G-Good night," ( Y / N ) whispered as she closed the door shut.

This warmth blossoming within her Soul felt foreign - yet so familiar. Toriel seemed to trust her already and Frisk was so at ease around her just now, too. These people were so kind, so trusting... In one way or another, Sans was kind in his own way, too. Sans could have just left her to fend for herself, but he didn't. He rescued her anyway.

And here she was, taking advantage of their kindness. Unbidden tears welled up in her eyes.

And all she had done in return for their kindness was to hide the truth from them.

Hell, she had already lied to them.

She cried herself to sleep that night.

. . .

Splashing water onto her face, she rubbed at it until the tear stains from last night disappeared.

It was the best sleep she'd gotten in a long while, and yet she hardly felt rested at all.

Hearing two knocks on her door, she quickly exited the bathroom and went to open it. Before she could even grasp the doorknob, a soft voice she recognised as Frisk's spoke from the other side of the door.

"Knock, knock."

( Y / N ) was stunned into inaction for a moment before quickly replying with a "Who's there?"

"Canoe."

"Canoe... who?"

"Canoe come down for breakfast? Mom made pancakes!" Frisk squealed happily on the other side. It put a smile on her face - Frisk's excitement was infectious.

Opening the door, ( Y / N ) was met with a stack of clothes being dumped into her hands.

"These are from mom and I. Well, most of them are mine, but feel free to use them. We'll go clothes shopping another day," they said before turning to leave and head downstairs.

( Y / N ) placed them on the foot of her bed - she will sort them out later - and quickly followed Frisk downstairs. The smell of freshly made pancakes met her senses. Entering the kitchen, she took a seat beside Frisk at the table.

A stack of honey-glazed pancakes was placed in front of her - she practically drooled at the sight.

"I hope you like pancakes," Toriel said, chuckling at the sight of ( Y / N )'s expression.

At the rate she was eating, she might actually upset her stomach, but at the moment, she couldn't care less. The pancakes tasted heavenly. She hadn't eaten pancakes in what felt like forever. Toriel and Frisk shared a laugh at seeing her like that. Before long, her plate was empty. She let out a content sigh after finishing all of that.

"It was delicious. Thank you, Toriel," she said.

"Glad to hear that you're sounding better," Frisk said before she had even realised it herself - her voice had indeed gotten better.

( Y / N ) could tell that Frisk seemed to want to ask more questions, but they kept quiet about it - much to her relief. Glancing over at Toriel, she offered to do the dishes - it was the least she could do in return for the food - and Toriel accepted her offer of help. So, after everyone was done, she gathered up the dishes and began washing them in the kitchen sink. Toriel disappeared outside to tend to her garden, leaving ( Y / N ) alone with Frisk.

"I'll save the questions for later, when Sans drops by," Frisk stated, startling ( Y / N ) a bit as she wasn't expecting this conversation topic to come up so soon. Hands still wet and covered with suds, she turned around to look at Frisk. They were wearing a serious expression that revealed nothing of their intentions.

"Jumping straight into the heart of the matter, eh?" ( Y / N ) responded. "I don't blame you for it - I'd do the same thing, too, if I were in your shoes - but, I'd appreciate it if you guys listened to what I have to say first before jumping to any wild conclusions," she said, turning back to finish washing the dishes. Frisk came up to her side and began helping her dry the dishes. Both of them fell silent after that.

After doing the dishes, the two of them retreated to the living room where Frisk immediately plopped themselves down on the couch, switched on the television and began channel surfing. Unsure of where else to be, ( Y / N ) joined them on the couch. She stared at them, deep in thought.

"How did you and Sans become so good buddies anyway?"

Frisk gave her a sideway stare. 'Shit, what's with that look? What did I say?' she thought.

"We share similar circumstances and ways of thought," came Frisk's vague response.

'Right...' she thought as Frisk turned back to the television. Only then could she relax a bit.

The very thought that the skeleton monster from yesterday would be coming again so soon made her all tense and jittery. Even though Toriel had told her not to take his words to heart, she couldn't shake off the feeling of bad times ahead.

Seeing that Frisk was engrossed in watching the show that was on the television right now and not at all interested in starting another conversation with her, she took that as her opportunity to escape to her room. Once inside, she sighed. She'd been sighing much too often lately - that needed to stop, really. Her gaze fell on the pile of clothes Frisk had given her earlier this morning. Deciding that this was as good a time as any to look through them, she did just that. After sorting the clothes and putting them away into the wardrobe in the corner of the room, she picked something casual - a pair of shorts and a long-sleeved shirt - to change into for the rest of the day. Unsure of what to do, she just collapsed onto her bed.

"Ugh... What am I even doing here..." she muttered to herself.

Sitting up, she crossed her legs and propped some pillows behind her as she leant against the headboard. She brought her right hand over her chest - over where her heart was - and closed her eyes, focusing on drawing out her Soul. When she felt her body become slightly numb and hollow, she opened her eyes.

A translucent ( Y / SC ) heart hovered in front of her chest. The only opaque colour on it was the dull, white outline around its edges. She frowned. The centre had almost lost all its colour - that wasn't a good sign.

'I'm sorry,' she whispered apologetically in her mind as she reabsorbed her Soul, restoring the feeling of wholeness to her body. She tested this by flexing her fingers and moving her limbs around. Drawing out her Soul always felt... wrong. She only did it when she needed to check on its condition.

A flicker of warmth flared from within her Soul. She smiled.

"Thanks for the reassurance, really," she whispered back in response.

Lying on her side on the bed, she felt the mental exhaustion from yesterday's events return with a vengeance. Her body may be well-rested, but her mind was far from it. At the moment, it felt like her head was stuffed full with foam. When she'd set her plan into motion yesterday, she hadn't once considered what she'd do after it was all over - because, honestly, she didn't think she would make it outside. And now...

She had one scarily serious human and one distrustful skeleton monster - an Executor, no less - to deal with.

She tried not to dwell on how she would confront those two. Instead, she closed her eyes and began consciously controlling her breathing, slowly slipping into a meditative-like state. It was important that she did this regularly enough to help her Soul regenerate and regain its true colour. She didn't know how long it would take, but hopefully it would reverse - or, at the very least, alleviate - the effects of the experiments on her Soul. Then again, she'd only found out about this from some reports she had managed to steal when the scientists weren't looking, so the validity behind this was questionable - but it was better than doing nothing at all.

When she was done, she reopened her eyes and rolled over so that she was on her back, staring at the ceiling. Some movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention and she turned to look in that direction. Lo and behold, Sans was standing there, leaning casually against the wall. She let out a frightened scream at that.

"You seem to be quite lost in your thoughts there, buddy," Sans said as he was tinkering around with his phone. He wasn't looking at her. At least, not directly. She sat up slowly, inching further away from him.

"I have to admit, I never had to use the app before. Well, there's a first time for everything, or so they say," Sans rambled on as he pointed the phone at her. She couldn't help the flinch when he did that. He pressed a button.

Nothing happened. At least, from what she could see.

Sans focused his attention on his phone, cursing when he apparently didn't get the outcome he wanted. Pocketing his phone, his gaze fell on her.

"Even the app crashed when it tried to read you. Go figure."

Two soft knocks came from the door, but before she could go answer it, the door swung open - she had forgotten to lock it, damn - and in came Frisk.

"Oh hey, Sans," Frisk calmly greeted the skeleton. Said skeleton waved back at her.

Was she the only one being freaked out by this?

Frisk closed the door behind them.

"Let's just get straight to the point."

. . .

'Don't panic, don't panic,' she tried telling herself - it... wasn't exactly working. Eyes darting between Frisk and Sans, she couldn't tell what their intentions were. Well, she could guess what Sans' intentions were - he had made that abundantly clear last night, but not Frisk's.

Sans sighed. "Look. I don't want to make this any more difficult than it already is for any of us," he began, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie jacket. "All I need from you, is to let me take a look at your Soul, alright? I won't harm you or anything... unless you make the first move." The promise of pain behind those words did not go unnoticed.

"Sans..." Frisk reprimanded. They approached ( Y / N ) and sat down at the foot of the bed before turning to look at her.

"He won't do anything. He just needs to be sure, ya know?" Frisk reassured her, smiling.

Toriel's words from the night before resurfaced in her mind. Frisk appeared to be playing the role of a mediator now. But... she still wasn't sure if she should trust them. She slowly got into a sitting position, eyes never leaving the two of them - especially Sans.

'Who else then, if not them?' the rational part of her mind argued back. They'd rescued her and given her help when she needed it the most - what more convincing did she need? She needed to make friends, now, not more enemies.

Swallowing thickly, she answered, "F-Fine. I'll show you my Soul, alright? Just..."

'...don't look at me like I'm a monster.'

She focused on drawing out her Soul, just like before. Feeling a shiver crawl down her spine, she gave it one final tug and out came her Soul. It hovered over her chest silently.

She didn't dare look up. She was afraid of what she would see on their faces.

"It's translucent...?" Sans said, disbelief evident in his tone of voice. ( Y / N ) curled back into herself slightly as she bit her lip tightly.

"I don't know what they did. It just... became like this," she said, her voice soft. No one said anything for a long while after that.

"I need to take a sample of it."

She looked back up at Sans upon hearing that. She could feel the panic returning. Less because of her lack of trust in Sans, but far more because it reminded her of less pleasant times in the laboratory. "Why?"

"I need to conduct some tests, to test a few hypotheses of mine - don't you want to find out what they did to you?"

She should be feeling relief - Sans could find a way to reverse this! - not distress. Why was she panicking?

"You don't trust me," Sans deadpanned.

She said nothing in response.

"How about a trade, then?" Sans suggested suddenly. "You provide me with a sample of your Soul... and I'll let you walk free."

W-What? That was ridiculous!

"How is that even fair?" she argued. Sans crossed his arms.

"Do remember whom I work for. If the King of Monsters knew that you had anything to do with the Soul black market, he would never let you go."

The... black market? Sans thought she was involved with the black market? God, this was a horrible misunderstanding.

"I'm a victim! They bloody experimented on me in that accursed facility!" she exclaimed. Something flashed in Sans' left eye-socket then.

"Do tell," he said calmly. His attention was focused only on her. It was then that she got the strangest feeling that he was waiting for her to say something that he wanted to hear her say.

She was getting more and more aggravated by his calm demeanour. She didn't like how this conversation was slowly turning into an interrogation instead. He was doing this on purpose - to get her to slip and say something of use to him. That was probably his main intention here.

"I don't know what it is that you want me to say!" she exclaimed, her tone pleading him to understand. "They injected me with liquids every once in a while and... hooked me up to machines every so often, too. I... almost always fall unconscious somewhere in between - they probably drugged me or something - so I don't remember anything of what they did to me."

They stared at each other for a long moment. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes already.

She hated this. She hated how she was feeling right now.

"Sans, this isn't going anywhere." Frisk's voice broke the silence. As if a switch had been flipped, Sans backed off. He turned to look at Frisk and she did the same. Frisk was looking straight at her.

"How about you consider Sans' proposal of a trade? It seems like the only option both of you are willing to compromise on."

She thought about it for a long moment. 'I suppose... it wouldn't hurt to just do it this one time...' She just hoped it wouldn't cause her Soul to fade even further. She nodded her agreement. Sans reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe.

"Hold steady and don't make any sudden movements."

He approached her Soul slowly with the syringe. She forced herself to stay still when the tip of the syringe pierced through her floating heart. She still couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her lips though. It wasn't as painful as she'd expected - it just felt mostly strange, like there was something foreign prodding around inside her. She watched with a sort of grim fascination as bits of her Soul filled the cylinder of the syringe. After Sans extracted what he deemed was enough, he withdrew the syringe. The needle on it vanished the instant he pulled it out, leaving behind just the cylindrical body. It was strange to see her Soul not inside her own floating heart container. The specks of opaque white floating in a mass of translucent ( Y / SC ) appeared oddly beautiful in its own way.

"That should do it," he muttered as he stuffed the cylinder into his jacket for safekeeping. She reabsorbed her Soul. When she did, however, she realised that she still felt a bit... empty.

"So, what happens now?" she asked. Sans shrugged.

"You and I go back to being strangers, I suppose," came his response.

"Sans..." Frisk lightly scolded him again.

"Yeah, you're right. It's better if we don't know each other," she muttered. Frisk seemed surprised by this. They were about to say something to Sans, but he turned to leave the room then. He didn't bother closing the door behind him. She stared blankly ahead at nothing as his footsteps receded.

She didn't know why, but her Soul ached right now. For some unknown reason, that callous answer of his disappointed her. What had she been expecting, really?

'Isn't it better this way?' she thought. Her Soul responded with a painful lurch that made her flinch.

"Are you okay?"

She tried to smile, but it came out more as a grimace instead. "I-I'm fine," she lied.

"You should probably rest. Your Soul needs to recover," Frisk suggested and she listened. She went to lay down on the bed, pulling the covers over her as she did so. Frisk took that as their cue to leave. They got up and made their way over to the door, but stopped right before crossing the threshold.

"I believe you, you know."

She looked up at that. She looked into Frisk's honey brown eyes, searching for any signs of deceit or pity. She found only unwavering determination.

"Sans may not believe you entirely, but I do." She didn't know how to respond.

"What's with that look? Is it that surprising that I trust you and what you're saying?" The surprise must have been obvious on her face.

"Well, Sans and mom always said I was too trusting for my own good," Frisk added, frowning in thought.

"I had this weirdest feeling of familiarity when I met you. Like you remind me of someone I know - or maybe, used to know. I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've met though, so it's probably just me." Frisk shrugged.

"Despite everything, I was hoping we could be friends," Frisk continued, smiling wide.

The sight of such a warm smile filled her with determination.

They grabbed the door handle. "Just rest for now, I'll come up later when it's time for lunch."

They closed the door shut with a soft click. She was alone once more.

Lying on her side, Frisk's words repeated in her mind. They brought a small smile to her face.

'Huh. So, this is what it feels like to have a friend.'


	4. Human IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise in advance for this mostly boring chapter. I had to get this out of the way somehow before progressing with the plot. D;
> 
> (wow, more than 10k words for creating the setting for the story alone - I've never written so much for one story before..?!)
> 
> If you've read the AU Info page and/or the Prologue (titled: The Beginning) on my tumblr, some of this may seem familiar. But, don't worry if you haven't, the one in this chapter is the complete backstory.
> 
> This is the chapter where we'll start addressing that 'Undertale Player Is Reader (?)' tag at the top over there. Also, lots of other things happen.
> 
> Once again, thank you so much for all the support! I didn't think that people would like this strange story of mine - I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing it! <3
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to wilyart (http://wilyart.tumblr.com/) for being a major inspiration to me while writing this story. I wouldn’t know where I’d be right now if it wasn’t for her art and stuff. ( thank you ! )

The days passed by peacefully.

She took up Toriel's offer and stayed in their home for the time being. Toriel and Frisk were absolutely wonderful people, she found. She found herself quickly forgiving Frisk for their slightly cold demeanour during the first morning in the house. After all, they were only doing what they thought was right at the time. After reading up on some history and on the recent happenings these past few years, she completely understood why Sans and Frisk had to do what they did.

It seemed that circumstances had changed for the worse.

Frisk was shocked when they heard that she couldn't remember what had happened to the world after the war - or anything else, actually. It was a history lesson taught to every kid in school by their teachers or at home by their parents, so it was common knowledge, apparently. Frisk then took it upon themselves to re-educate her - even going as far as to borrow books from the Snowdin Librarby. Frisk had disappeared for a few hours in the afternoon one day to get her the books she needed. She spent entire mornings and afternoons reading them.

According to various historical texts, the war had ended with a peace treaty - neither the Humans nor the Monsters won. Both races agreed to divide the land between the two races and set up an impenetrable barrier to separate the land. The centre of the barrier - its focus point - was Mt. Ebott. Mt. Ebott was officially declared as neutral ground, so that neither race had the advantage of having the focus point of the barrier within their territory. Both races could inhabit the area, if they chose to, but the area - especially the focus point - was heavily guarded by armed forces belonging to both races. The rationale behind this was simple, really.

The barrier was the only thing separating the two races. To wage war, the barrier had to be taken down first. Possession of the focus point was key, in this case.

Anyway, peace reigned for many centuries after that. Technology advanced in leaps and bounds - for both races. Although, Monsters had the advantage of being able to use Magic. Magic was incorporated in various technologies, allowing unthinkable feats of science to be accomplished. A larger version of the Core in the Underground of Mt. Ebott had been built and now supplied energy to the entire Monster Kingdom. Teleportation machines were invented as well as a more convenient means of transportation. The books listed countless inventions by various monsters. The name that appeared the most often, however, was this monster named Alphys. She was surprised when she saw Sans' name appear a handful of times in some of the books.

After she had finished reading the books, Frisk had given her a journal full of newspaper articles and reports to read. These were to educate her on the more recent happenings, they had said. She brought it to her room to read.

She had suspected that things were going too smoothly - these pretty much confirmed her suspicions.

Centuries after the war, the concept of LOVE and EXP had been made common knowledge - everyone knew how they worked because information about them had been leaked to the public post-war in the form of exposed military reports and scientific findings. Murders and kidnappings became more commonplace. Humans killed and fought others of their own race to gain more EXP, sometimes even involving monsters. It hadn't taken Humans very long to figure out that Monsters were exceptionally weaker compared to Humans.

In February 2066, plans of a genocide orchestrated by a group of Humans called The Reapers had been exposed. Their target were supposed to be the monsters living in the neutral ground of Mt. Ebott, in the Underground. It still remains unknown who exposed their plans. All known members of The Reapers were captured and imprisoned for life. In November that same year, leaders of both kingdoms announced that a new regulation was to be implemented and enforced by a group of select individuals called Executors. It revolved around the idea of using LOVE and EXP as indicators of a person's tendency to commit homicide. The Human Kingdom used The Reapers to set an example - all of those imprisoned in February that year were immediately executed the day after due to their high levels of LOVE and EXP.

She had hoped that was the end of all of this - it wasn't.

In April 2067, kidnappings skyrocketed and reached an all-time high. Curfews had to be imposed for the safety of the people. Human bodies started turning up without any visible injuries and no kidnapped Monsters were ever found. When news of the DT-Extractor Machine blueprints having been stolen earlier that month were leaked out to the public, the masses put two and two together and realised that the victims of the kidnappings all had their Souls extracted. More information on what Soul Extraction entailed was later leaked out to the public by investigative journalists.

Liquid Determination and Liquid Mana, when consumed in the right amounts and by the right person, enabled the individual to gain permanent boosts in power - without having to gain LOVE or EXP. Liquid Determination was obtained by extracting from Human Souls while Liquid Mana from Monster Souls. These Liquids had become a new currency of the black market.

Panic ensued. Months down the road, even after the kidnappings began becoming less frequent, the people still lived in fear and no one dared to travel from one place to another on their own.

The rest of the journal contained articles about more kidnappings that happened later though the year. By the time she closed the journal, her hands had been shaking.

She now clearly understood Sans' reluctance to trust anything she said. When Sans had said 'Soul black market' in their conversation that day, what he'd actually meant was the kidnappings, the Soul Extraction... everything. The liquids that they had injected her with - were those the Liquid Determination and Mana the reports mentioned? She could only imagine what Sans was thinking when he saw her Soul like that. Did he think she fed herself those Liquids and thus turned her Soul into that?

She had thought they didn't trust her because she was a stranger to them. It was no wonder now that Sans didn't trust her at all then. Frisk knew all of this, too - and yet, they trusted her anyway?

'This is just... too much,' she thought, fear and guilt seized her heart with a vice-like grip.

How could have things gone so wrong? She hadn't done anything she thought was wrong - she'd explored all the possible outcomes and endings. She had made sure that all the pieces would eventually fall together and give them the perfect ending they'd have wanted. She had orchestrated it all to ensure that no one would be any the wiser - including Frisk.

Seeing that all of this had happened... It just meant that all her efforts had been in vain.

What was the point of being able to SAVE and LOAD then, if she couldn't use it to get a perfect happy ending?!

And now she was stuck here, in a world not of her own - a world that shouldn't even exist in the first place. She had messed up badly - and she had no more Resets to fix her mistakes, this time around.

A flicker of warmth in her Soul snapped her out of her own dark thoughts.

'Shit. Sorry about that,' she apologised in her mind. Another flicker of warmth.

"I... I'm just not used to being this... helpless," she admitted. "I don't know what I should do now."

Pushing the journal to one side of the table, she went and laid down on her bed. She almost wanted to grab a pillow and scream into it, just to vent her frustrations.

The first thought that crossed her mind was that she should ask for help.

"As if that would work..." she scoffed. No one would ever believe her. She went back to staring at the ceiling. After a while, she began tracing weird shapes on the ceiling with her eyes.

Heat blossomed from her Soul, reminding her of its presence.

"And I haven't forgotten about you, either. I promise I'll help you first before settling my own mess, alright?"

The heat diminished in its intensity, but still lingered.

"Look, it's not a situation I'm happy with either. One mistake and the both of us are screwed. I need to think this through carefully," she muttered grumpily. The heat finally faded away.

It's been ten days since her conversation with Sans. She was beginning to experience some symptoms of cabin fever already - probably exacerbated by her growing need to do something productive, especially considering the fact that she had limited time. Rolling off the bed, she quickly threw together an outfit using the clothes she already has and made her way downstairs. Through a window, she spotted Frisk and Toriel outside, tending to the garden. Leaving by the backdoor, she approached the two. Toriel heard her approaching and stopped what she was doing to ask what she was doing out here.

"C-Can I help out? At least let me make it up to you for letting me stay," she said to Toriel.

Toriel smiled. "I didn't want to ask you because I thought you needed the rest... but, if you insist. Can you help me with the weeding? I need to get some groceries. Ah, speaking of that, is there any food in particular that you like?"

Toriel was asking about her favourite food? Why?

"Erm, if I had any, I don't actually remember..." she half-lied. Toriel frowned upon hearing that.

"I'm sorry, maybe I shouldn't have asked. Memory loss must be a horrible thing to deal with..."

"I-It's not as horrible as you may think, though. In some ways, I'm glad I don't know what happened to me back when I was still stuck in that place. Ignorance is bliss, and all that..."

"That may be true, but you're still missing important pieces of yourself. No one should have to experience that."

She remained quiet at that.

"Anyway, I'll be back in an hour or so. I'll see you both later," Toriel said before heading back inside.

"Bye, Toriel." "Bye, mom!"

Grabbing a pair of gloves from the toolbox, she got down to her knees and began weeding.

"Hey, Frisk," she yelled. They were working on opposite sides of the garden, so she had to speak louder.

"Yeah?" they yelled back.

"If I wanted to leave the Underground, how do I do it?"

She could feel Frisk staring at her back.

"Why do you want to leave?"

"I have too many questions and far too little answers. I need to go learn the truth." She tugged harshly at one particular weed clump that refused to be plucked. Throwing the weed aside, she resumed weeding normally.

"You're going to go anyway whether I tell you or not, so does it even matter if I answer you? Have you told mom about this? I'm guessing you haven't." Smart kid.

"I can't just stay here."

"Of course you can. You just have to make the decision. Like I did."

She looked up from the garden bed and turned to Frisk. Frisk had their back to her.

"...What made you stay?" She already knew the reason - hell, she WAS the reason - but she wanted to hear Frisk's side of it.

"I don't actually know. I just decided one day that I shouldn't bother trying to go back to the Human Kingdom anymore. Why bother when I can just stay here with mom and my friends and be happy?"

"But, how about your family?"

"I don't have anyone I consider family," Frisk deadpanned. Oh boy, it looked like she had touched a sensitive topic there.

"I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. Those people... They're dead to me."

"I-I see."

They fell silent after that and continued weeding.

"What will you do if you find out the truth?"

She shrugged. "...I guess it depends on the truth."

"Fair enough. Will you seek revenge though?"

Her thought processes came to a grinding halt - what was this about revenge?

"Revenge?"

"For what they did to you. To your Soul."

Right. Frisk didn't know. It was better if it stayed that way though.

"Maybe. I don't know what I would do, actually," she responded.

"Just don't do anything stupid. Mom will be devastated if she knew."

At the mention of the kind goat lady, a wave of guilt washed over her. Toriel... Toriel had been kind to her the entire time - even through all the different timelines. She didn't want to disappoint her, but she didn't have much of a choice here in this timeline. Perhaps, after all this was over...

"I'll come with you."

Those words had her reeling from shock for a moment. Turning around, she found Frisk standing just an arm's length away.

"What? No, you shouldn't! It might be dangerous!" Frisk scoffed.

"Well, I can't just let you do this all on your own, can I? What sort of friend would I be if I let you do that?" Frisk argued back. "Besides, I know a way to get you through the Underground and out the barrier safely."

Something about that statement struck her as odd. When did Frisk know how to escape the Underground? She'd never helped Frisk out of the barrier before. The closest she'd gotten was The Core.

"What do you mean by 'through the Underground and out the barrier safely'? I thought you'd never left the Underground."

"Yeah, but I know someone who can lead the way."

Was it Sans? Why would Sans even agree to help her though...

"Is it Sans?" she guessed. Frisk shook their head.

"Well, who is it, then?"

"Asriel, the Prince of Monsters, of course!"

She felt as if her insides had been filled with ice. That... was impossible.

Asriel was supposed to be dead. His death was what triggered the war in the first place, wasn't it?! Now that she thought about it, the deaths of Asriel and Chara were never mentioned in those history books. She had thought at first that it was a sensitive topic and thus the King had it censored and removed, but now...

"Surprised that the Prince is my friend? Well, we get along really well. He usually visits mom and I really often because he lives with in the castle with King Asgore, but recently they've been preoccupied with..." She paid no attention to what Frisk was saying.

Wrong.

This was all wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong wrong wrong. Asriel was supposed to be dead - he was supposed to become Flowey, the first monster she met in The Ruins. How was he alive? If Asriel was alive... then how about-

"...lots of fun with the other monster children - we never really grew out of snowball fights..."

"So, Asriel and Chara never died...?"

Frisk looked at her as if she were crazy. "What!? No, of course not! Chara isn't around with us in the Monster community anymore because they went back to the Human Kingdom. Last I heard from Asriel, Chara is making a name for themselves in the field of Soul Research."

Well, shit.

Some things still didn't add up right.

"Correct me if I'm wrong - and I most likely am - but, a human - Chara - fell into the Underground before the war and the King and Queen took them in as their own child, right?"

Frisk raised an eyebrow at that. "You must have gotten the names mixed up. It wasn't Chara that fell in all those years ago, it was Adris. Adris lived a long, fruitful life before the King, Queen and Asriel finally laid him to rest. He'd died of old age."

"Then, when did Chara come along?" Frisk gave her an odd look but didn't comment on it.

"Chara fell in when they were six years old, so... around 2054."

"How did you, Chara and Asriel meet then?"

"I fell in almost ten years after Chara did, in 2064. Chara and I are roughly the same age. We met while playing a game, I think."

The hollowness in her chest spread. Everything was just WRONG. She had a very bad feeling about all of this. Too many variables had changed. None of the timelines she had influenced began like this! How did the timeline change so drastically?

"Hey, you're turning quite pale there, are you okay?" Frisk asked, concerned.

She shook her head. She needed to sit somewhere quiet to digest all of this.

"I'm getting a bit dizzy. I think I should take a break..." she said distractedly before throwing off the gloves and heading indoors. Stepping into the kitchen, she quickly grabbed herself a glass of water to rehydrate herself. Putting the glass into the sink for washing later, she turned around only to find Frisk hovering near the door.

"You shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard. Well, on the brighter side of things, the weeding is almost done... C'mon, let's get you to the couch so that you can lay down."

Frisk helped her to the couch, propping up some pillows to make it more comfortable, too. Frisk went to the bookshelf to grab a book - she couldn't see its title from her position on the couch. They sat on the floor in front of the couch, leaning against the armrest and began reading. She had expected Frisk to at least ask why she was suddenly so interested in them, Chara and Asriel, but they said nothing.

This was the scene Toriel walked into when she returned from grocery shopping. Needless to say, the goat monster went into a mini-frenzy about her state of health after that.

So, the past changed - now what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (if you are reading this before reading the chapter - scroll back up and read it first - really!)
> 
> This is also the chapter in which the Player is scared half to death.  
> Also, ( Y / N ) isn't the name you gave to the person whose perspective you are reading this chapter (and some parts of the story) from.
> 
> Confused yet?  
> No? - Good job (seriously).  
> Yes? - It's okay; things will be revealed bit by bit (though that may or may not help with things, but erm... yeah...).
> 
> New tags will be added soon after this chapter goes up. Again, thank you so much for all your support!
> 
> Let the 4th-wall-breaking begin.


	5. Sans V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's about damn time I put down some more interaction with Sans.  
> The next couple of chapters should have more Sans-interaction (yayyy).

Sans prided himself as a specialist in Souls. He knew better than anyone how Souls worked.

But even this sample here had him stumped. There was simply nothing that explained it. Going by everything he knew about Souls, this particular Soul shouldn't even be able to exist. The translucent parts of the Soul were an actual Soul - it used to be ( Y / SC ) in colour. The wavelengths matched the scales and readings he had gathered based on other Souls of a similar colour - so he was absolutely positive that the translucent ( Y / SC ) belonged to a typical Human Soul. He couldn't exactly pinpoint why it was so faded though, since there could be hundreds of reasons for it - the most probable reason being Soul Extraction.

If you extracted too much Determination from a Soul, it would gradually lose colour until it faded away altogether - in which case, the Soul would disappear forever.

As for the white bits... White was a colour characteristic of Monster Souls. It was impossible for a Soul to have Human and Monster characteristics at the same time. Theoretically, if a living thing were a hybrid of Human and Monster genetics, it... could be possible, but there were no records of such a thing that he could find.

Glaring daggers at the floating Soul sample, Sans plopped into a nearby chair, bone tired.

He'd hoped that the sample would shed some light on what they were doing in that laboratory, but it only raised more questions than answers. Hours into his testing, the opaque specks of white had even begun disappearing and he couldn't do anything to stop it.

Rubbing circles into the sides of his skull, he sighed tiredly. He'd spent the entire night working on this and he had work the next morning - oh joy.

Shutting down his equipment, he decided to call it a night and lock up his lab before teleporting back to his room to get at least a few hours of sleep in. That's what he'd said he would do, but then the insomnia kicked in. He stared up at nothing as he waited for morning to come.

When morning finally came, he donned his signature blue jacket, chugged down some coffee and immediately left the house.

His duty for today was patrolling the area around Mt. Ebott. It was supposed to be a relatively easy job, considering that hardly anyone ever tried entering the heavily-militarised neutral zone. The barrier allowed beings through both ways in the general vicinity of Mt. Ebott. That being said, that meant that Humans and Monsters could bypass the Underground by climbing around Mt. Ebott to reach the other side if they'd wanted to. The treacherous climb through the mountain pass and up the steep, jagged slopes while evading dangerous wildlife and military personnel deterred many would-be trespassers, but needless to say, there were those who tried anyway.

It just so happened that today was one of those days.

Summoning his bones, he used it to cage the human that had fled upon seeing him. The human slammed his fists on the bones over and over again, screaming profanities as he tried over and over again to break himself free. Sans watched on, indifferent. Scanning the human's Soul, Sans found that the human hadn't gained enough EXP to be arrested, so with an exasperated sigh, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a flare gun. He pointed it vertically into the air and pulled the trigger, sending a bright orange orb of light into the sky. If things went according to plan, he should be seeing a familiar face.

Within minutes, a Human Executor showed up via jetpack. He couldn't see their face, but Sans only knew two Executors who used jetpacks.

"Ah, it's you again," came a muffled, female voice. So, it was the younger one - perfect timing.

Sans grinned and did a dramatic bow. "The one and only, _bone-fide_ Sans."

Landing gracefully on the ground, the masked human glanced at the other guy trapped in Sans' bone cage. They took off their mask. Bright blue eyes stared back at Sans.

"Another stray, eh? We've been getting lots of strays recently..." She frowned. Sans shrugged.

"Yeah, with those sort of rumours spreading around, it isn't exactly very surprising."

"Hmph, tell me about it," she grumbled as she approached the trapped human. "You're way too close to the Monster's barrier boundary and hence your presence here is an act of trespassing. Period. I don't want to hear any excuses and anything you say or do from this point onwards can be used against you in court. Do I have your understanding?"

Said human spat at her boots, grinning manically. "You Executors should just drop dead."

"Sans."

Sans gave her a nod before hurling a particularly large bone right at the man's head, knocking him unconscious. He released the cage then, letting her do what she wanted with him. She attached a claw-like device over the man's torso which connected to her jetpack before leaping into the air once more, carrying the man metres into the air.

"Thanks for the help."

"It was no problem, kiddo." It was highly satisfying for him anyway.

"I'm not a kid, damn it! Jeez, get that through that thick skull of yours already!" she said, crossing her arms pouting.

"You can't blame me for it. I am practically just a moving, empty skull-head," Sans chuckled, winking. All the humour in his voice disappeared in his next sentence. "I need to ask you for a favour, Rei. Can you come down here for a bit?"

She flew back down to the ground, curious. The man who was attached to her claw dropped back onto the ground roughly, but it didn't seem that Rei cared. Neither did Sans.

"Well, it depends on the favour, I suppose?"

"I need you to look through the system on your side for info on this person. Her name's ( Y / N ) and this is how she looks like," Sans said, showing a picture of ( Y / N ) that he had taken the same time he tried to use the Soul scanning app on her.

Rei had her brows furrowed in concentration as she committed the face to memory. "Send me the photo later for reference - I might need it. Is she a suspect or something?"

"Or something."

"Sans..."

"Just throw me a _bone_ here and look her up, will ya? I'll make it worth your time."

"Oh, really?"

"I'll get plenty of Grillby's alcohol for you, okay?" If Rei did manage to dig up some juicy info on ( Y / N ), he'd get Rei as much alcohol as she wanted - she loved Grillby's brews apparently.

She laughed in amusement. "Fine, fine. You don't need to make me sound like such an alcoholic. I'll contact you when I find something." She flew off after that.

"'I'll contact you when I find something', huh?" She seemed so sure she could dig up ( Y / N )'s dirty secrets already.

Unlike the rest of the Human Executors, Sans could trust Rei and her twin brother - they were the more easy-going and open-minded ones. They had worked together in joint missions before and they got along splendidly. It was probably also because he and Rei were both scouts and thus understood each other better. The same couldn't be said for the rest of the Human Executors, though... For one thing, they weren't exactly very welcoming of his puns.

Kicking a stray rock into the bushes, Sans resumed his patrol. He still had several hours left until his shift was over. Maybe he could drop by Papyrus' station around lunch time. Yeah, that sounded like a plan.

Meeting her there however, was not in the plan.

Sans gripped the lunchbox in his hand tightly. The box was on the verge of bursting. Taking a deep breath, he tried calming himself down by reminding himself that she hadn't done anything to warrant his suspicion and anger - yet.

Frisk and Papyrus were chatting away happily. Sans caught the tail end of a what seemed to be a highly passionate conversation about spaghetti as he approached Papyrus' sentry post. The other human stayed a polite distance away, watching the two of them converse with a small smile.

"Fancy meeting you here, pal. My name's Sans. Sans the skeleton," Sans greeted her as if she were a stranger to him - he stayed true to his word, after all. He reached out a hand towards her. She seemed somewhat startled by it. Her gaze met his. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Frisk giving him a glance.

"Oh, erm. Hi, my name's ( Y / N ). It's nice to meet you," she replied as she grasped his boney hand.

The sounds of a woopie cushion going off filled the air and he grinned at the shocked expression on her face. He broke down in a fit of laughter - she did the same a moment after he did. Frisk joined in on the laughter. Papyrus, on the other hand, was not so amused.

"BROTHER! DON'T BRING THOSE NASTY CONTRAPTIONS WITH YOU TO WORK! FOCUS ON WORK, YOU LAZY BONES!" Papyrus screamed - literally. Sans took it all in stride.

"Oh c'mon, Paps. What's work without a bit of humour here and there? Besides, my jokes are the best. Don't they just tickle your funny bone?"

"SANS."

Sans only chuckled in response. Frisk distracted Papyrus by talking about spaghetti again and soon enough, the two of them were back to discussing pasta. Sans mentally thanked Frisk.

"So, what brings you to these woods?" Sans asked her.

Papyrus' sentry post was located just outside the entrance to the Underground near the Monster's side of the barrier boundary. It was not the sort of place one would just stop by along the way. Maybe Frisk had brought her here?

"Frisk sort of asked Asriel - sorry, I mean, Prince Asriel - to bring us here? They'd mentioned something about us looking suspicious if we tried heading towards the barrier all on our own, but I told Frisk that I wanted to see the outside again, so..." she began rambling, eyes looking at everywhere but Sans.

He sighed. Clearly, they'd gotten off on the wrong foot. A day after he had obtained a sample of her Soul, Frisk had given Sans the longest lecture he'd ever received from them - he'd gotten a grand total of thirteen text messages from Frisk that day, berating him for his behaviour and how he could have been more friendly about everything. He never intended to scare her like that - he'd merely wanted to be sure that Frisk, Toriel, and anyone else he knew would be safe. He couldn't afford to take any risks when it came to this, after all.

Deciding to spare her from her suffering, Sans raised a bony hand to stop her flow of words. She perked up at that.

"Look, ( Y / N ). I'm sorry about the other day. I didn't mean to make you all scared or anything, I... I was the one being excessively distrustful. I'm the one at fault here, and I apologise for that," Sans began, scratching the side of his skull absentmindedly. His words stunned her into silence.

"If you're willing, maybe we can start over? We've already gotten past the introductions' stage anyway."

The smile he was met with was the brightest he had seen on her face.

Surely, she couldn't harbour any ill intentions... right?

"I am, if you're willing, too," came her reply. Her frame was much more relaxed now.

Sans grinned. "Now then, I hope you like puns and jokes, because I have a _skele-ton_ of them."

In the background, a distinct cry coming from Papyrus could be heard. She chuckled.

"And as you can see, Paps... isn't very fond of my puns - he doesn't find them very _punny_ you see, for reasons beyond me."

Yet another scream echoed through the forest. She broke down laughing.

"Oh my god, Sans, stop. Those puns are horrible. You're killing me here," she gasped out in between her laughter.

Sans shrugged. "Well, they don't call me a _heartless_ comedian for nothing."

It took a moment to sink in, but when it did, she clutched her sides as she broke down in a fit of laughter again.

Someone who can find amusement in his crappy puns... She can't possibly mean any harm, right? A shadow of doubt surfaced but he steadfastly ignored it.

"So, anyway, how about you gimme a chance to make it up to you for the other day? How does dinner at Grillby's sound?"

She seemed a bit surprised by the sudden offer of dinner. "I can't possibly accept that... After what Frisk had told me about everything that was going on in the two kingdoms, I can't find it in me to blame you for what you did. With all this shady, underground business going on, I can't fault you for being more careful. Especially around the people you care about."

Sans fell silent at that.

She continued, "Besides, you saved my life remember? I should be the one treating you to dinner, not the other way around. But I don't have any sort of money with me right now, so I guess we'll have to take a rain-check on that one."

Ah, right. For a moment, he'd forgotten for a moment that she belonged to the other side of their world.

"Don't let that dampen your mood, kid, there's always next time." He waved off her worries.

He decided to address the topic they both had been avoiding.

"Seeing you being so chummy with Frisk and all, why don't you just stay, then?"

It was obvious she wanted to go home, but at the same time, something was tearing at her to stay. Two directly opposing wants clashing within her. He saw right through her.

Her gaze hardened. "I'd love to, but I can't. I need to find out the truth."

Sans closed his eyes. "Well, just lemme give ya another piece of advice, alright?"

"Some things are better left unknown, forgotten," he said wistfully.

A heavy silence settled over them.

"Anyway, I have to get back to work now. I'll see ya later tonight."

"Tonight?" she squeaked in surprise.

"Hmm? Didn't Frisk or Tori tell ya? They invited Paps and I over for dinner tonight."

Sans waved goodbye to Frisk and Papyrus, both of whom waved back with vigour before resuming their conversation on food. As he walked away, soil crunching beneath the soles of his slippers, he reached into his lunchbox and pulled out a small bottle of ketchup Papyrus had packed for him. He chugged it down in seconds. The next food item - a sandwich - was inhaled in seconds flat. The lunchbox disappeared back inside his jacket.

'She didn't seem like a bad human,' Sans thought.

He just hoped Rei had good news to bring him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rei and her twin brother (whom I have yet to name because he doesn't appear until much later, lol) are minor characters. Don't worry.  
> Rei and Sans are just good colleague friends - nothing more.


	6. Human V - VI

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy moments should be treasured.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1000 hits, seriously? Omg, thank you so much for all the support! ; u ;

She shouldn't be feeling these emotions.

How did the acceptance of one skeleton monster make her feel like this? She could feel her Soul pulsing warmly with happiness and excitement. ( Y / N )'s feelings were bleeding over into her in waves, overpowering her own feelings about the situation.

'You must have really wanted friends, huh,' she whispered to the only other person listening in her mind.

In a much more positive mood now than before - though she wasn't sure if it was because of her own feelings or ( Y / N )'s - she resumed mixing the cookie dough mix with renewed vitality, giving the dough the most thorough mixing she had ever done for a pastry item.

"Woah, calm down there. You don't need to put in that much strength into mixing, you know. You're just going to tire out your arms unnecessarily..." Frisk commented as they were chopping up vegetables.

The two of them were helping Toriel prepare dinner. They had returned from their little excursion with Papyrus tagging along, some time after Sans had left. Papyrus had only a morning shift that day, so he accompanied the two of them back home before taking a detour towards Undyne's house. He'd mentioned something about attending a cooking lesson.

Some time later, they both finished preparing whatever they could. Toriel thanked them for the help and let them do whatever they wanted until dinner-time. She had wanted to help out more, but Toriel insisted she could handle it.

"We can leave the actual cooking and baking to mom - she has the knack and the fire magic for it, anyway," Frisk informed her. Only then did she retreat to the living room and immediately laid herself down across the couch, sighing with content.

"The first thing you make a beeline for is the couch. God, you remind me of Sans," Frisk admitted to her, unamused.

"Anyway, how about we play a video game until Sans and Papy come for dinner?"

She cracked open an eye to look at Frisk. Frisk had this determined look in their eyes. She was almost afraid to ask.

"What game?" she asked cautiously.

They grinned mischievously. "A car racing game."

The competition was on.

And that was how they ended up screaming at each other as they both tried their hardest to win against the other. The fire in Frisk's eyes hadn't diminished a tiny bit at all since they started the game. She was winning almost eighty percent of the time, yet Frisk kept that determined look of theirs on.

"How are you so good at this?"

"I've had lots of practice." She thought back to the lonely weekends spent in front of her computer - it seemed like so long ago.

"...I thought you said you didn't remember anything from before the lab incident," Frisk glanced at her.

Crap. Uhhhh...

"Well, this is gonna sound strange but, the weight and feel of a controller feels perfectly natural in my hands. So, I guess I must have played a lot in the past?"

Frisk didn't seem to believe her but accepted her answer anyway.

'Phew, that was a close one...' She really ought to choose her words more carefully next time.

Hours flew by just like that. Their attention focused solely on the screen in front of them. When three knocks came from the front door, neither one of them wanted to pause the game to get the door - they were running their last lap.

"Last lap!" Frisk growled out. Damn, she never knew Frisk was such a determined gamer.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Toriel coming out of the kitchen to answer the door instead. Toriel gave them a fond look before going ahead to open the door.

"GREETINGS! SANS AND THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAVE ARRIVED FOR DINNER AT YOUR WONDERFUL HOME!" Papyrus dramatically announced.

She glanced down at the corner of the screen where the mini-map was. 'C'mon, few more turns...'

Two pairs of eyes were still glued to the television screen, completely ignoring Papyrus' grand entrance. She and Frisk let out a screech when Papyrus went to stand directly in front of them, thus blocking their view of the screen. Having memorised the mini-map earlier, she skilfully manoeuvred her car anyway towards the finishing line.

"GREETINGS FRISK AND HUMAN ( Y / N ). WHATEVER ARE YOU TWO DOING?"

"Hey, Paps, I think they were both playing a video game," said Sans. Papyrus instantly had an expression of pure regret.

"OH DEAR, I HADN'T REALISED YOU TWO WERE PLAYING A GAME. I'M REALLY SORRY FOR BLOCKING YOUR VIEW."

"It's fine, Papy. You gave us an extra challenge right at the end - it made the game more fun!" Frisk consoled the taller skeleton. They turned back to her.

"And how did you do that? You were literally driving blind!"

She scratched the side of her face out of nervousness. "Uh... I memorised the course and predicted the timing of each turn using audio cues...?"

Papyrus and Frisk seemed very impressed by that. "OH WOWIE. YOU'RE REALLY GOOD AT THIS GAME THEN." "Oh wow, that's amazing!"

"Before the whole incident, you could have been a super nerdy gamer for all you knew!" Frisk said. In their excitement, they hadn't realised they had brought up the topic of her memory loss. Toriel shot her an apologetic look, but she shook her head slightly.

"It's fine Toriel. It's not a sensitive topic for me any more. I'm way past the shock of it all," she said, shrugging it off. She'd never possessed any of ( Y / N )'s memories in the first place. She was sure ( Y / N ) still had her memories perfectly intact - she just couldn't bring herself to tap on them, lest she irreversibly damaged ( Y / N )'s Soul.

"If you're sure..." Toriel began hesitantly. She gave her what she hoped was a convincing smile.

They all took their seats around the dining table. Frisk sat in between Toriel and Papyrus. She sat across from Frisk and beside Sans. No one held themselves back from Toriel's food. She let out an appreciative moan at the mashed potatoes - god, the gravy was so good.

"I love your cooking, Toriel," she mumbled in between spoonfuls of mashed potatoes. Toriel chuckled.

"You tell me that every time we have dinner. I appreciate the compliment, thank you."

"YES, I AGREE WITH ( Y / N ). YOUR COOKING IS SIMPLY MARVELLOUS."

"Why, thank you, Papyrus. How was your day?"

The rest of dinner continued in a similar fashion. Toriel and Papyrus contributed the most to the conversation about their day. It was nice.

After everyone had their fill, Frisk and Papyrus excused themselves to the living room where Frisk immediately pulled out a board game for them to play. That left her, Toriel and Sans with cleaning duty.

"It's okay Toriel, let me handle the dishes. How about you join Frisk and Papyrus outside?"

"That's sweet of you. Thank you," Toriel accepted her offer easily and left to join the others outside.

She began gathering the dishes when someone stepped into her field of vision.

"I'll help ya out."

It was Sans. She quietly muttered her thanks and brought all the dirty dishes over to the sink where she plugged the hole before turning on the tap to fill up the sink. Grabbing the sponge, she squirted some detergent onto it and began lathering all the dishes in soap. Sans began helping her rinse all the dishes dry before using his magic to place them back where they're supposed to be kept.

"Lazybones..." she muttered as she passed him a soapy plate.

"I call it efficient," he replied as he received said plate.

They worked together in silence, broken occasionally by the clattering of plates and the clanging of silverware.

"If you don't mind me asking, what do you remember?"

She shot a glance at Sans. His face showed only genuine curiosity.

"I don't remember much of anything, really," she told him truthfully.

"Were you planning on leaving today?" This time, Sans turned to look at her straight in the eye. Damn, how did he do that? How could he tell?

Keeping her voice low, she whispered. "Yeah, I was."

"Now that I know for sure, don't think that getting there will be easy," came his vague answer. It almost seemed like he was threatening her to stay...?

"W-What do you mean by that?"

"Frisk, Toriel and even Papyrus like you. Frisk and Toriel think of you as family already. We monsters are like that, ya know. We forge relationships far easier than humans do - Frisk being the exception, of course." What he said was true. She had only been living with them for two or so weeks, and they were so close already.

"If you think that I'm going to just stand by and let you walk to your death like that and bring more grief and suffering to the people I care about, you're wrong."

"What gives you the right to stop me?"

"I don't. But that doesn't mean I won't stop you. I'm just here to tell you to stop and think about the repercussions of your actions for a moment."

Sans wasn't judging her for anything. He wasn't berating her either. His words had a sort of pleading undertone to it.

"I understand your need to find out the truth - I truly do. But that doesn't mean you should throw yourself head first into the unknown. You dying will affect more people than just yourself - think about it."

She fell silent at that. She knew, of course. Her dying will bring much grief to Frisk and Toriel. They would be utterly devastated. She wasn't quite sure if they would be the same afterwards.

"So, I should just be content with my life as it is and not do anything? I don't think I can afford to do that."

"I'd understand if you were anxious to recover your lost memories. But to me, right now, it seems more like you're trying to do something else related to yourself, and not just your memories. If you had truly lost all of your memories, where would you even go in attempt to restore them in the first place?"

He was obviously hinting at her seeking revenge. She shuddered at Sans' perceptiveness. If he put it like that... it obviously made it sound like she was being reckless.

"Look, the Human Kingdom is not exactly a place you want to be wandering around in. Things are a lot different now. Kidnappers prowl the streets at night. People's Souls are treated as a commodity. They won't hesitate to murder you for it. You've experienced it first-hand. It's not safe there."

"What's in it for you, then? What do you stand to gain from all of this?" she shot back at him. Sans remained calm and completely unfazed.

"A friend."

His answer had her stumped. She had no words to say.

"One more plate..." he said, grabbing the final soapy dish from her hands. "There, all done," he said after rinsing and drying off the last plate.

"HUMAN, SANS. ARE YOU TWO DONE WITH THE DISHES? COME AND JOIN US IN THIS GAME!"

Sans turned to look at her then. "C'mon, let's go, they're waiting for us."

When she returned to the living room where everyone had gathered, she was met with smiles and laughter from all around. The very sight warmed her heart.

She found herself smiling and laughing by the end of it all, too.

. . .

Sans' words had weighed heavily on her mind for the next couple of days.

She had spent some parts of her days helping Toriel and Frisk with whatever she could help them with - chores, random tasks, et cetera. Aside from that, she spent the rest of her day just lazing around, pretty much, doing whatever she could to keep herself preoccupied. She had no job to go to - even Frisk had private lessons to attend - and Toriel taught in a Monster elementary school in the Monster Kingdom, so that left her alone at the house most of the time on weekdays.

Those days had been the perfect opportunity for her to sneak out the barrier and loop back down the mountain towards the Human Kingdom.

But she didn't. While the rational part of her mind urged her to go, Sans' words still lingered in her mind, causing doubt to resurface time and time again whenever she thought about leaving.

Progress on healing ( Y / N )'s Soul was coming along nicely, too. The centre of her Soul had regained some of its colour already. She estimated that it would take another month or two until it was restored completely. It seemed that being happy in general sped up the process exponentially. She realised that as ( Y / N )'s Soul regained strength, ( Y / N ) regained more influence over her own body as well. There would probably come a time in the future where they had to fight for control over the body. She wasn't about to give it up to its original owner any time soon, of course, because she still had things she had to do, but the prospect of that possibly happening frightened her.

( Y / N )'s growing Soul strength left her with another new dilemma as well. She wasn't sure if it was a side-effect of having ( Y / N )'s emotions bleed over into hers, but... She had found herself increasingly unwilling to part with this group of friends she had made. Ah, who was she kidding? - she was definitely growing attached to this odd group of friends she had made. This, in itself, was a problem that she didn't really want to think about right now, but it plagued her mind anyway.

She was in the midst of watching some strange cartoon on television with these heavy thoughts lingering in her mind when Frisk returned home.

"Hey, welcome back, Frisk," she greeted the younger human. Frisk tiredly waved back.

"One heck of a learning session again, eh?" Frisk didn't deem that with a response and merely plopped down onto the couch with a groan.

"What subject was it this time?"

Frisk grumbled something that sounded like 'Mathematics'. She nodded with understanding and gave Frisk a pat on the shoulder.

"Do you want some ice-cream as a reward for getting through all of that?"

Needless to say, Frisk perked up at that. Laughing, she got up from the couch and headed over to the kitchen to grab Frisk a bowl of said ice-cream. Honestly, she could understand their pain. Having to catch up on all the years of studies she had missed out on in a shorter span of time couldn't possibly be easy - especially since they intended the sit for the necessary exams to attend Monster university, too, later on. Frisk seemed to be coping well, though, despite everything. Laws over citizenship conversion were still highly debated in both kingdoms, but hopefully they would get passed one day.

"Don't push yourself too hard, okay?"

"I'm not! It's just that the three-hour long lesson can get quite draining by the end of it..."

She handed Frisk the bowl of ice-cream and they began digging into it happily.

"Who tutors you, by the way?"

"Alphys! She's the smartest monster around." Frisk paused for a moment here. "Oh yeah, you haven't met them yet."

If only Frisk knew the truth. In a number of timelines, she had met Alphys, Undyne and Mettaton under... less than pleasant circumstances. She put on a confused look for Frisk. "Who's 'them'?" she asked.

"The rest of our gang - Alphys, Undyne and Mettaton. All of us - including Chara and Asriel sometimes - usually meet up during the weekends for some fun and relaxation, though that hasn't happened recently because most of us were busy with something or the other," Frisk explained, frowning.

Without any further prompting, Frisk continued. "Alphys and Mettaton have been working on some project under the King's orders, I think. Undyne, Sans and Papyrus have been busy with their Executor stuff, too. Chara is busy with Soul Research while Asriel is busy helping Asgore run the kingdom, so..."

She couldn't help but feel a twinge of pity for Frisk. They would be stuck here on their own most of the time if she weren't here.

'They wouldn't even be here if she hadn't influenced Frisk to stay,' a dark thought resurfaced and she squashed it back into the the depths of her mind without a moment's hesitation.

"We should have something planned for the weekend," Frisk exclaimed suddenly.

Uh oh, she recognised the fiery determination in those eyes. There was nothing stopping them now.

"How does a sleepover sound?" Frisk asked, eyes alight with excitement. How could she say 'no' to that face? She nodded with a smile and Frisk let out a whoop at that. They began rambling excitedly about what movies they all should watch, the snacks they could eat...

"Oh my, someone's excited about something..." Toriel said from the doorway - she had returned at the perfect moment. Frisk bombarded her with so many questions and requests. Toriel listened patiently, nodding every once in a while and interrupting here and there to give suggestions. Just like that, a sleepover had been planned for the weekend. Frisk was put in-charge of inviting everyone and preparing the 'fun stuff' - in Frisk's own words - while Toriel would prepare all the foods they were going to eat over the weekend. Both she and Frisk practically went starry-eyed at the thought of having Toriel's butterscotch-cinnamon pie again.

With a speed unlike anything she had ever seen before, Frisk quickly typed up the invitation and sent it out to everyone - except for her and Toriel - via text.

"Me, you, mom, Papyrus, Sans, Alphys, Undyne, Mettaton, Asriel and Chara... That's ten of us under one roof. Okay, we're gonna need to pull out the large party games, then." Frisk shrugged it off as they began pulling out what appeared to be a... trunk from the closet.

Followed by one more... and then another.

She learnt first hand that day about the insane number of games Frisk owned. Anything from board games to card games to video games... They had them all. It was scary, almost.

"...H-How do you own so many games...?" she asked, flabbergasted.

Frisk looked almost sheepish. "Well, it started when Alphys introduced some of these games to me. Back when Alphys and Undyne had more free time on their hands, they often came over to play. Occasionally, Sans, Papyrus, Chara and even Asriel would join in, too. The collection just sort of grew after that."

Well, it didn't come as a surprise to her that playing games was a popular hobby for Monsters here. The Underground was very small after you'd spent enough time living here.

"You should see Alphys' collection - hers is far larger."

They spent the rest of the day tidying up Frisk's game collection, stopping only for dinner. They would have taken far less time if they hadn't stopped mid-way to play some of the games. By the end of the day, everyone - except Mettaton, who had a fan-meet-and-greet session that weekend - had agreed to come over for the sleepover that weekend. Frisk was ecstatic.

The days flew by and soon enough, the weekend had arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fought with myself a lot for this chapter. It wasn't because this chapter is very important - it's actually not that plot-heavy.  
> So why was I struck with a writer's block and basically had to stop writing for several days? Well-  
> -I was thinking about what ending I wanted for this story.
> 
> I know this story is tagged as a Sans / Undertale Player + Sans / Reader fic, but to me, this is also an experimentation of sorts + character study in a modified canon setting. I will be playing around with a lot of ideas that may seem odd or illogical, so please bear with me. That being said, thank you for all the support! I hope you'll continue to enjoy this odd story of mine as much as I love writing it! <3


	7. Player Two (Start)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Press any button to continue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to replace ( Y / N ) and ( Y / SC ) with your name / a name and a Soul colour respectively.  
> .  
> .  
> .  
>  **Warning(s) : descriptions involving blood, gore, torture and bodily/human experimentation**  
> .  
> .  
> .  
> New tags will be added soon after this chapter goes up.

She'd hardly gotten a wink of sleep the night before the sleepover. Waking on the morning of the sleepover proved to be especially difficult, as a result.

She and Frisk began the day by cleaning, tidying up and prepping all the rooms in the house. The house had only three bedrooms to begin with, so every bedroom was going to have at least two or three people sleeping in it. Undyne and Alphys were put together in the same room - for obvious reasons - while Papyrus, Sans and Asriel were bunking downstairs in the living room. Frisk got paired up with Toriel.

So, that left her with... Chara.

The very thought filled her with an icy dread that lingered for the entire day. She had no reason at all to dread meeting Chara. But for some reason, she did.

"You're ( Y / N ), eh? The punk told us a lot about ya!" a fiery-red-blue fish monster greeted. Said fish monster slapped her on the back - hard - sending her stumbling forward a few steps. They had approached her from behind as she was moving the coffee table closer to the television to make more room for everyone later. She must be really tired to have not even realised that the front door had opened and closed.

"Uh, and you are...?" she meekly asked, eyes darting between Undyne and Alphys. She mentally berated herself for almost letting Undyne's name slip out.

She should have anticipated this and mentally prepared herself beforehand. It was awfully difficult to pretend not having met someone before when she clearly remembered them all. Hopefully, she wouldn't say something she wasn't supposed to know by mistake.

"The name's Undyne! And this here is my awesome girlfriend, Alphys! She's the Royal Scientist, ya know!" Undyne boldy announced, chest puffing with pride even as Alphys repeatedly shook Undyne's arm to get the other to stop talking, a bright red blush covering her features.

"It's a p-pleasure to meet you, ( Y / N )!" Alphys stuttered out.

Frisk came to her rescue then and brought the couple up to their assigned room - which was hers, actually - so that they could drop off their bags there. The others would be arriving within the next hour, so she quickly carried on with work. She began stacking up mountains of pillows and soft, fluffy blankets around the couch. After she was done with that, she went to set up the gaming consoles they were going to use later after lunch. She had been in the middle of setting them up when they arrived.

"Both Asriel and Frisk told me about you but they never actually mentioned how you looked like."

She turned around slowly.

Two faintly-glowing crimson eyes stared back at her, framed by brown locks. The rest of their long hair was tied up neatly into a low ponytail. They were dressed in what appeared to be a striped, bright green sweater. Their arms were crossed and their expression blank and cold.

Her Soul pounded painfully. The pain spread in waves through her entire body.

"Hello, Patient #042."

She froze like a deer caught in headlights.

Chara moved past her towards the console she had been in the middle of setting up.

"Do you believe in coincidences?" They continued setting it up, plugging in a cable here and there.

Turning around slowly, she watched as Chara continued acting like nothing was wrong. She had gone completely mute and still, unable to react - she didn't know how to react.

"I certainly don't."

Chara grinned at her silence.

"I'm very glad to see that you're alive and well. When the guards reported that you had escaped, I had been so sure you were going to be found lying in a ditch somewhere."

A flare of heat came from her Soul. It was intense - raging and fiery - unlike anything she had experienced coming from ( Y / N ) before. Before she could do anything about it, her control _slipped_ and the world turned on its axis before plunging into a murky fog. She lost all feeling to her body.

"Why?" ( Y / N ) forced out after a tense, quiet minute as Chara plugged in the controllers and set up the television.

"I have my own reasons - you were just collateral damage," came Chara's vague response.

"Chara, you're finally here!" Frisk's voice came from the direction of the stairs. She regained control of the body then, gasping as ( Y / N )'s control diminished and her vision became clear once more.

What the hell just happened?

"Heya Frisk!" Chara gave Frisk a hug and Frisk returned it in kind. She got a glimpse of Chara's eyes then - they were... green?

She could have sworn they had been red earlier. She shuddered at the thought.

She suddenly felt like she was suffocating - what? - and her Soul pulsed weakly, growing colder with each passing moment. She needed to get out. Biting her lip, she quickly muttered an excuse to Frisk and Chara before leaving the house with controlled steps, so as to not make it painfully obvious that she was about to hyperventilate or break down in a panic or something. Her vision was turning foggy again. She wasn't sure if it was because of her lacking oxygen or ( Y / N ) trying to regain control of the body again or a combination of both, but it wasn't doing the both of them any favours right now.

Her chest felt tight and extremely heavy at the same time. This wasn't looking too good...

"S-Stop it... you have no i-idea what y-you're doing..."

Stumbling around, she headed towards Toriel's old home where the exit of the Ruins was. It had been converted into a storage area and garage of sorts after Frisk moved in permanently with Toriel. With the increased traffic of people - guards, patrols, Executors... - through the Ruins, Toriel decided to have a new home built for the two of them on the opposite end of the room with the lone leafless tree so that they could live in relative peace. When she asked Toriel why they hadn't just moved to Snowdin or New Home in the first place, Toriel didn't give a reply.

Trudging through the piles of leaves, she had to put one hand on the blackened bark of the tree to steady herself.

Collapsing against the side of the tree, she rested her head against it, eyes falling closed. Air rushed into her lungs as she took deep breaths.

Mentally reaching deep within herself, she focused on ( Y / N )'s Soul. She hadn't wanted to resort to this - she truly didn't. Reopening her eyes, a ( Y / SC ) heart with a white mass outlining its shape floated over her chest.

'I'm sorry,' was all the warning the other got.

Pulling, she _melded_ the two colours together. The white bled into the ( Y / SC ) and indescribable pain flared through her nerves as memory after memory flooded her mind's eye.

.  
.  
.

It was like she was watching one of those old, black-and-white movies, only this one had audio.

She was lying on a metal table - a medical examination table, her mind helpfully supplied. Bright lights poured in from above, blinding her whenever she looked straight up towards the ceiling. Tilting her head to the side, she saw Chara.

They were clad in a lab coat and holding a stack of papers. They were speaking to two other people - a male and female. The female one was crying, being consoled by the male.

'Those are my parents,' a female voice that was not her own said from within her own mind - it seemed they were sharing the same 'body' even in this memory-scape.

They couldn't hear what exactly Chara was saying - probably because ( Y / N ) herself was disoriented and only half-conscious when that had happened. They heard only fragments of what seemed to be a serious conversation. Words like: "we can offer a cure", "experimental stages", "risks have to be taken" and "chances are slim" made everything all the more ominous.

'Just what exactly happened here, ( Y / N )?' she asked ( Y / N ). 'This isn't a time to be withholding any more secrets from me - I saw how you reacted to seeing Chara just now. Something happened between the two of you and I need to know what it is!'

In the background, Chara continued talking to ( Y / N )'s parents.

'Look, since you've already started looking through my memories, you're gonna witness everything sooner or later anyway. I'll fill in the blanks as well as I can when we get to those memories.' ( Y / N ) responded, 'In the meanwhile, since this is the first time I can actually converse with you, why don't _you_ tell me more about yourself while we wait for the memory to progress itself?'

Somewhere above and off to one side of the room, the air-conditioner hummed.

'I-I don't know where to begin.'

'The beginning is always best,' ( Y / N ) remarked dryly.

'It's not as simple as that.'

"If you two are willing, just sign your names here, and we're all set," Chara finished, passing ( Y / N )'s parents a set of documents. Chara turned to her then. Approaching the bed, she adjusted the drip hanging off one of the racks. A few minutes later, her field of vision began to darken as she slowly slipped back into darkness.

The next time they woke up, they woke up strapped to yet another elevated metal table.

'As you can see, my parents signed it,' ( Y / N ) said, voice laced with sadness and anger.

A few unfamiliar faces surrounded her. Strange looking equipment flanked her on both sides. One of the men approached her with what looked like a syringe gun and injected a bright red liquid into her arm before heat began spreading through her body. It wasn't unpleasant, per say, but it definitely felt foreign. It wasn't the liquid they had filled her pod with though...

As if reading her thoughts, ( Y / N ) said, 'They called it Liquid Determination.'

After the heat dissipated, one of the lab-coat-clad men picked up a crude hand-axe and immediately swung it where her left thigh was, over and over again. The sickening sound of flesh being ripped apart and bone being smashed filled the room. Upon each impact, her vision blurred, more blood and flesh dripped off the table and more screaming echoed off the walls. Blood flowed down the sides of her face when she accidentally bit her tongue. Some time later, they began gagging her to stop her from screaming and to prevent her from biting off her tongue again. After they were done with the hand-axe, they moved on to more commonplace weapons: crowbars, handguns, shotguns, knives... She couldn't feel the pain - it seemed to have been missing from ( Y / N )'s memories - and she was eternally grateful for it.

"...regrowth rate..." "...consciousness retained but..." "...prepare the next injection..." "...amazing body preservation potential..."

Fragments of sentences made it through, but she's heard and seen enough to piece together what was happening here. The memory didn't end there. They just brought in more tools to test on her and injected her with more Liquid Determination each time. To keep her alive for testing, they even injected her with some sort of bright green liquid which miraculously healed all of her wounds within minutes. Then, the process continued.

At some point, they began using scalpels to reach her internal organs.

'Can we _please_ not look at this?' ( Y / N ) pleaded.

Willing the memory to go away, the world was quickly replaced with blackness, infinitely stretching in all directions. Sounds of footsteps echoed somewhere behind her. Every once in a while, the silence was broken by bloodcurdling screaming coming from elsewhere in the facility.

'This was one of the few times they let me sleep. I couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard I tried,' ( Y / N ) admitted.

She didn't deem that with a response.

'Let's start simple. What do I call you?'

'...'

'Well?'

'I...'

'What's your name? You do have one, don't you?'

'I used to. But, that was a very long time ago.'

'...A very long time ago?'

'Yeah.'

'How long ago?'

'Honestly, I stopped keeping track.'

Things went silent for a while. She was the first to break the silence, 'What do you think gives existence to a person? A name? Friends? Family?'

She didn't pause long enough for ( Y / N ) to say anything. '...or perhaps, memories of the person?'

She continued, 'None of those apply to me. I effectively do not exist. Having a name - remembering what it is - was never of any importance to me ever since all of this happened.'

'Have you ever thought about a world where everything is exactly the same... except you don't exist? Everything functions perfectly without you...' she recited, recalling the words she'd heard so many times before.

'But you're here now, aren't you? I know you're real.' ( Y / N )'s words snapped her out of her thoughts. 'It means that you're existing, right here and now. So that means, you should have a name, even if you have to give yourself one.'

'...'

'...'

'In that case... you can call me, 'Player', then.'

'W-What...?'

''Two' works too, I suppose. Someone I know used to call me that... haha...' the being named Player let out a humourless laugh.

'I thought you said you didn't have anyone who would know or remember you?'

'Well, I meant those living in _this world_.'

A flash of light later and they were in another memory.

It felt strange viewing the same scene unfolding but from a different perspective. Two watched as the faceless scientists wheeled ( Y / N ) through the Core - ( Y / N ) was seated on what could have passed for a wheelchair if it weren't for the straps around her neck, wrists and legs, binding her body to it. They passed by the central pod as they were making their way across the room and it was then she saw what she looked like for the very first time.

Two had always known she didn't have a 'body'. They placed her in a sort of black fluid that allowed her to exist so that they could observe her. When she was stuck in that pod, she often wondered how she 'looked' like - now she knew.

She was just a hovering, empty heart. Its center was completely transparent, outlined by a brilliant white that shone brightly against the inky darkness.

'That's me. Well, 'was' me, anyway,' Two told ( Y / N ).

'So, _that's_ how you know me,' ( Y / N ) said, realisation finally dawning on her.

'You were one of the few whom the scientists always brought to this area. When I carried out my plan, you just happened to be the one there. I don't know why they thought leaving you there in the same room as me was a good idea, but they did - I just took advantage of the situation.'

When the memory began fading away, she began pulling herself out from ( Y / N )'s Soul to stop herself from tapping on ( Y / N )'s memories any further.

'Wait, what are you doing?'

'I've seen enough. Don't try to take control again - you'll end up killing us both. It's not the right time yet.'

'W-Wai-'

.  
.  
.

Opening her eyes, she was met with the cracked walls of the Ruins and the jagged, rough edges of the decomposing leaves beneath her fingers. Hardly a minute would have passed since she tapped on ( Y / N )'s memories.

"( Y / N )?" Frisk's concerned voice drifted over from somewhere to her right. Two tilted her head in that direction.

"Hey, Frisk." She sounded exhausted.

"You scared me for a moment there - what happened?"

"Some memories came back - that's what happened."

Frisk said nothing and rushed over to give her a bone-crushing hug - Two didn't know Frisk could hug someone so tightly...

"It's alright, you're not alone in this."

Trust Frisk to know the exact thing to say in a situation like this.

"I SHALL PARTICIPATE IN THIS HUGGING SESSION AS WELL!" Papyrus' voiced boomed from somewhere behind her before she felt herself being hugged while lifted into the air. Frisk let out a whoop at that.

"'Sup guys," Sans said casually, waving as he stood by the side, watching.

"H-Hey Sans," she managed to squeak out despite Papyrus' arms hugging her to the point where she found it difficult to breathe.

"Hey Paps, I think you may need to let them breathe..."

Papyrus gently placed them both back down on the ground at that.

Breathing deeply, she thanked Sans, "Thanks for the save." Sans waved it off.

"C'mon let's go already - I'm gonna _leaf_ you guys behind if you _stick_ around for any longer," Sans said, grinning.

"SANS," Papyrus screeched.

Two and Frisk laughed aloud at that.

It felt good to exist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been waiting so long to get to this point.  
> Hopefully this chapter provides more answers than it raises questions.


	8. Ketchup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smiles, lies and promises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to replace ( Y / N ) with your name / a name for a more personalised reading experience.
> 
> Uhhhh, and also... the UNO rules I'm familiar with are probably different from the ones that you may be familiar with so anyway, one major variation is that: the effects of any 'draw' cards like 'draw four' or 'draw two', can be reflected onto the previous player who played it by placing another 'draw' card. The reflected effect will be the sum of all 'draw' cards that have been played. This can carry on for as long as two players have 'draw' cards to play.
> 
> Anyway, without further ado, here's chapter eight. ; u ;

Her Soul had settled down by now - ( Y / N ) didn't seem to be trying to take control again.

She stabbed the pie in front of her with a fork and cut out a small piece before bringing it to her mouth, savouring its taste. God, Toriel's pies were heavenly.

"WHY MUST IT BE RED," Papyrus bellowed as they grabbed more cards from the stack until he finally threw down a red 'five' after drawing four more cards. Frisk grinned victoriously from behind their hand of cards.

They were playing UNO. Frisk was in the lead with only two cards left.

Two grinned. She put down a 'draw four', shooting a smirk at Sans.

Sans' grin only grew - he responded with another 'draw four'.

Everyone around the circle gasped - including Two. Inwardly, she was doing a victory dance. A vicious smirk broke out on her face. With deliberate slowness, she put down yet another 'draw four'.

Another round of gasps.

Sans sighed with defeat and began drawing twelve cards. Two almost felt bad for him. Frisk cheered her on while Papyrus began cheering Sans on.

Who knew playing a card game could be so dramatic.

Two more rounds later and Frisk was the first to win. Several rounds after, Two won, followed soon after by Sans - whom had made a miraculous comeback by stringing five cards together. Alphys won the round after, followed by Chara, then Asriel. It became a three-way fight between Papyrus, Toriel and Undyne after that. Her plate was devoid of pie by now.

Lunch had been a lively affair - everyone had gathered around the table for some awesome food - thanks to Toriel - and everyone had a great time. The most talkative ones were Papyrus and Undyne. On the flip side, the most quiet ones were - unsurprisingly - Two and Sans. They had hardly contributed to the conversation beyond several questions and one-syllable answers here and there. Two was just content to listen - almost afraid to ruin this moment between a group of friends who have known each other for a much longer time than she had.

She was in no position to make friends right now, after all, as much as she wanted to.

Her mind kept returning to what she had seen in ( Y / N )'s memories. She just couldn't step dwelling on it.

After lunch, Frisk challenged Two to some more games on the console for a while but after Frisk lost over and over again, everyone moved on to play a card game instead. She had tried suggesting to let her play on a higher difficulty or with a handicap so that the odds were more balanced, but Frisk and the others didn't want the game to be played that way - they'd said it was unfair to her. Well, Two clearly thought otherwise but they refused to hear the rest of it. Frisk mentioned something about how everyone should be playing on the same level so that everyone can have fun. Well, if they put it that way... then, nothing she said would change their mind.

And thus began a series of UNO games that became upscaled in difficulty over time as they began bending the rules to make things more fun, including doing things like doubling the cards used to play a game, temporary banning of playing odd number cards... The list went on and on. The winner of each round gained the right to claim the prize - usually a food item that was determined at the start of every round. That was how she got herself a slice of Toriel's butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

After the last round, Two decided to take a break from it all and plopped onto the couch while Asriel and Chara shuffled the cards to start a new round. Frisk was digging in happily into their newly-acquired bowl of chocolate nice-cream. Alphys joined her on the couch, playing with her phone.

"There's a meteor shower tonight," Alphys informed everyone excitedly as she stared at the screen of her phone. Two saw that Sans visibly perked up at that.

"Really, Al? We should go watch, then," Undyne chimed in.

"YES, I AGREE. THE VIEW FROM THE MOUNTAINTOP WILL BE SPLENDID."

"That's a great idea, Paps. But, won't Frisk, Chara and I get into trouble for going so near the barrier boundary?" Two added, remembering that they had three Executors with them as well as the Prince of Monsters.

Asriel gave a nonchalant shrug. "They won't think you're trying to sneak out to the monster's side of the barrier if you're with monsters. So, as long as you're with us, it should be fine."

"Well, if the Prince of Monsters himself says so, then I'm down for it," Two said, smiling slightly.

Toriel began making her way to the kitchen. "Since we're heading to the mountain, why don't we have a picnic instead?"

"Frisk, could you go grab the picnic mats from the closet...?" Toriel called from the kitchen. Frisk yelled out a 'yes' before rushing off into the closet. Seeing an opportunity to escape without being overly rude, Two immediately got up from the couch and made her to the kitchen.

"Anyone up for a quick round of UNO before we head off?" she heard Asriel say right as she disappeared around the corner.

"Hey, Tori. Let me help you pack," she offered. Toriel thanked her and passed her an empty cooler box to pack some drinks. They said nothing more and began packing quietly. It was a nice change from the constant chatter and noise in the living room.

As much as she tried to get herself into a cheery mood, she just couldn't. Not after what she'd glimpsed in ( Y / N )'s memories. She considered it a small miracle already that she hadn't confronted Chara about what she'd learnt.

From what little she had seen, it seemed that whatever organisation Chara was working for - with, maybe? - had offered ( Y / N )'s parents a chance to cure ( Y / N ) of whatever condition she was in. A fatal disease, possibly? But, Chara worked with Souls - assuming what Chara told Frisk is true... - so what sort of condition would need a cure that involved the Soul...? And how did ( Y / N ) end up becoming a human guinea pig in that underground laboratory? Was Chara involved with that? She hadn't seen Chara anywhere in the laboratory before, though...

"Are you okay?" came a whisper from directly behind her.

It was Frisk. Damn, how did they learn to sneak around like that? Still holding a bottle of spider cider, she turned around. Frisk was giving her a concerned look. It must be about how she acted earlier.

Dwelling on Chara's involvement in all of this was not doing her any good - stop thinking about it, think about something else...

"Honestly, I don't know," she deadpanned. She went back to arranging bottles of cider inside the cooler box. For Sans' sake, she put in a couple of chilled ketchup bottles, too.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Frisk, thankfully, kept their voice to a whisper. They reached over and held a couple of bottles upright as she tried to squeeze in one more bottle of juice into the box.

"Not today," she replied. Frisk nodded solemnly. She heard, rather than saw, Frisk leave. Throwing open the freezer door, she saw that they didn't have any extra ice bags. Whatever that was in the ice tray was definitely not going to suffice. However, before she could do or say anything about it, Toriel spoke up.

"Don't worry about the lack of ice. We'll get some along the way later."

It didn't occur to her straight away, but it did, eventually. Because: Snowdin - it was in the very name. Ice was literally everywhere there. Two even saw a wolf throwing huge blocks of ice down the river stream that other time she visited Snowdin.

"Okay. Anything else I can help with?" she asked again, unwilling to go back to the living room.

"Can you transfer the fruits into those two containers over there?"

"Yep, sure." She went into all-out-focused mode after that, completely missing the worried looks Toriel and Frisk had given her.

She was running away - she was completely aware of what she was doing. She just didn't want to face the truth right now. All she wanted was to bask in this newly-acquired life of hers - but she had trouble doing even that because of this bothersome thing called guilt, and so she distanced herself from them, hoping that these feelings would go away with time. But they didn't. The crushing guilt and the _need_  to tell them truth only grew the more time she spent with them. She cared too much - and she was clearly paying the price for it. Whatever gods looking down upon her must loathe her so - giving her the opportunity to meet such _wonderful_ people, yet putting her in a position where she had to keep _lying_ to them in order to keep up appearances. Why must the fates be so cruel...?

To think that just some time ago, she'd been contemplating leaving the Underground for the Human Kingdom in order to dig around for clues on how to fix this mess she'd found herself in - and now look where she was. Had she made up her mind sooner, she could have avoided all this heartache. She should have left before she grew to know these people - before she had gotten _attached_ to them. But even that was a lousy excuse because, deep down, she _knew_  she _wanted_ to befriend them - she had befriended them once before, after all.

She hated to admit it, but... She missed the times she shared with them - even though she did so while controlling Frisk - and this one desire was likely going to be her undoing.

An hour or so later and everything was packed and ready to go. They didn't have cars in the Underground - no roads to use them with - so everyone had to pitch in and carry one or two baskets or bags. They weren't that heavy, so it was all good. The heaviest ones were being carried by Undyne, anyway - she hardly seemed to be having trouble carrying them. Donning a coat - one that Toriel had so thoughtfully bought for her the other day - Two made her way out of the house along with everyone else.

Several minutes later found her breathing out mist from her lips as the group trekked through the snowy forest right outside the Ruins. Undyne and Papyrus were right at the front - Undyne had an annoyed expression on her face while Papyrus seemed to be... singing? Chara, Frisk and Asriel seemed to be deep in a conversation while Alphys was trying to calm Undyne down. Sans and Toriel were chatting. That left her on her own at the back of the group.

A twinge of hurt surfaced at being the one left out again. Sighing, she readjusted the handles of the basket over her left arm before stuffing her right hand into her coat's pocket. Her fingers grazed something smooth and cold.

Oh yeah. Her cellphone. She'd been wondering where it went... Toriel had one made just for her. She made a mental note to thank Alphys for it later.

The snow crunched beneath her sneakers as she trailed after the group, maintaining a polite distance between herself and the others. With no one to chat with, she preoccupied herself with observing her surroundings. But, even that got boring after a while since there wasn't much to see in the first place besides snow, rocks and trees.

An idea popped into her head then. Maybe... Just maybe... ( Y / N )'s Soul might just be strong enough now, actually.

Slowing her steps, she closed her eyes, clearing her mind. Time seemed to stop for her as she focused inward, searching within herself for that connection. Instead of trying to merge her _entire_ Soul with ( Y / N )'s, she'd try to reach out to ( Y / N )'s Soul with just a tiny bit of her Soul - just enough to latch on and form a weak connection - enough for a two-way conversation, she hoped. With a bit of mental probing here and there... hopefully this wouldn't take too lo-

She got it!

She felt an echo of surprise and warmth almost immediately. Just as quickly, however, she felt the mental drain of keeping the connection open - she could feel the beginnings of a migraine already. The connection had been formed successfully though, so she couldn't help but smile at her success. Opening her eyes, she walked briskly ahead to catch up with the group.

'( Y / N ), are you there...?' she whispered in her mind.

The explosion of warmth coming from her Soul caused her to flinch but she made no other sound.

'...Two?' a quiet voice answered back.

'Hey,' she calmly replied.

'What did you even _do_?' Two had the strangest sensation of being grabbed at the collar and shaken around, though it clearly didn't happen. She batted at the ghost hands that had seemed to grab her, but her hands met no resistance. Did she just imagine that? Shaking her head slightly, she went and answered ( Y / N )'s question.

'It just occured to me that, since your Soul isn't strong enough to forge and maintain a connection with mine yet... Why not I do it? That way, we get to talk.' She deliberately left out the bit about how draining it was to maintain the connection over any period of time.

'Why didn't you do this earlier then?' It was a genuine question, not one directed at her with anger or anything.

'I wasn't even sure it would work. It could have backfired horribly and caused either of us to die. You're the first person I tried it with,' Two said in reply, shrugging.

'You possessed others before?' The incredulity and confusion coming from the other hit her first before she even managed to process ( Y / N )'s words.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit-

'Uhhh... Just _one_ other person. Anyway, that's not important,' she quickly tried to change the topic. God, her head was pounding. 'What's this 'cure' that Chara mentioned? Were you deathly deathly sick or something?'

'Something like that...'

A long pause, followed by what Two imagined would have been a sigh.

'I was diagnosed with something incurable - terminal. An aneurysm. Left side of the cranium.'

Two stopped walking. She took a moment to massage her temple to alleviate the pain. She resumed walking after that, lightly biting her lower lip all the while.

Well, shit. Damn it all, seriously.

'So, we can both drop _dead_ \- just like that - at _any_ given moment?'

'...Maybe?'

'That's not very reassuring.' How the heck was she supposed to get herself out of this mess?

( Y / N ) began rambling, 'I was going to tell you earlier, but I didn't know how to bring it -'

'Hey, calm down, ( Y / N ), no one's blaming you,' she tried saying to calm the other down, to no effect. She was fuming with anger that ( Y / N ) hid this fact from her, but there was nothing she could do about it now.

( Y / N ) continued rambling. 'I'm grateful, really, for you saving my life by helping us escape from that hellish place and all but... the aneurysm - I... I don't know-'

'( Y / N )!' she screamed in her head and she fell silent instantly.

They'd reached the 'bridge' to Snowdin, now. Everyone lined up in single file to get across.

'I feel absolutely fine. I couldn't even tell I was ill or anything, so maybe you were given the cure after all?' Two tried convincing her, but she received no response. You couldn't 'cure' an aneurysm - she knew that. She was trying so hard - and failing - to be optimistic here.

"Let me stop by the store for a moment to see if they have some fresh ice..." Toriel called out to the rest. The entire group came to a stop in front of said store. Two went towards some trees nearby, leaning against one of them.

"Well, it's _snow_ question they'll have some in stock - it's _perma-frosty_ here all year long, after all," Sans began, shrugging. Somewhere ahead, Papyrus let out a screech before stomping over to Sans to berate him for his bad puns. Two watched on with a smile that soon turned into a grimace as her headache intensified.

'So, maybe the cure worked,' Two said with a hopeful tone.

'Yeah, maybe.' Her tone was the complete opposite.

'I'm going to have it checked anyway.'

'And how are you going to do that?'

Two glanced at Alphys. Walking further into the forest, she sat down at the base of one tree, out of sight from the rest.

'I'm certain I can ask the Royal Scientist for some help.'

'What are you going to tell her, though?'

'...' What _was_ she going to say to Alphys?

"Hey, kiddo, you look like you just had a bad time."

Two jumped at the sound of Sans' voice. Looking up, she saw that Sans was just barely an arm's reach away.

"Heh... well... It's kinda hard to explain..." she trailed off. Sans shrugged.

"Talking about it might help," the hoodie-clad skeleton began.

"Sans..."

"You've been acting off since I first laid eyes on you today - something isn't right." At the mention of the near-panic-like state induced by Chara, Two looked away.

She shuddered at his perceptiveness. Damn it. How to distract him...?

"Well, you don't even know me, so how can you tell?" Two challenged back, staring right back at him. Sans raised an eyebrow - eyebone? - at her. He held her gaze for a few moments.

"Your eyes," came his reply.

"W-What?"

"They look darker now, like they'd lost their shine."

'Damn,' ( Y / N ) echoed her thoughts exactly. 'Are you going to tell him?'

'I have a feeling he'll find out somehow anyway, so I might as well-'

'No.' The tone of finality in ( Y / N ) was obvious.

'No?' she parroted in her mind.

'It's my secret to tell, not yours - I'm asking you not to. Please.'

God... This was getting out of hand.

"It's nothing, no need to fuss over it," she shrugged it off, eyes downcast. She tightened her hand into a fist as the headache became worse.

'Two, don't you dare tell him _anything_ ,' ( Y / N ) warned.

"( Y / N )-" Sans began, but she cut him off by grabbing his arm with her other free hand.

"One day," she whispered the promise in her words. She intended to keep this promise. Meeting his gaze head on, she hoped Sans would let this one slide, just for the time being. "And not just to you. I owe explanations to every _single_ one of you - even if..." She released her grip then, letting her arm fall limply back to her side. "...It's the last thing I ever do."

"Just this once, leave me be, alright...?" And at that exact moment, another wave of pain flooded her nerves and she let out a cry of pain, grasping at the sides of her head. Unable to bear the pain any longer, she abruptly closed off the mental link.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Sans was gripping her tightly by the shoulders, his eyes full of concern.

"If you're not feeling well, you should have said something."

"But... I wanted to come along, to spend time around with you guys..." she admitted, slowly lowering her arms so that she could rub at her temple.

"Not when you're sick. Rest for a bit, I'm gonna go tell Toriel and the others to go on first while I bring you back to-"

"No, I want to go!"

"And have you collapse from pain? No." Sans made to move around her but she moved fast enough to grab his wrist.

"I'm feeling better already, just... give me a few minutes."

Sans begrudgingly obliged and plopped himself down onto the snow beside her, sighing.

"Stubborn one, aren't you?"

She chuckled. "Like you're any better."

"You really are sick, aren't you? You didn't deny it when I said it earlier."

She didn't even bother trying to take her words back. She merely nodded in reply. Sans leaned back against the trunk of the tree as he folded his right knee up and the other horizontally on the ground. He placed his elbow on his right knee, resting his skull on his upper arm. He was still looking at her.

"You're possibly dying, aren't you?"

Her heart leapt into her throat. Gaping, she stared wordlessly at the skeleton monster. Drawing her knees up towards her chest, she wrapped her arms around them. She gave Sans a final glance before tearing her gaze away from him.

"I looked you up in the system." Unbridled anger rose in her when she realised that Sans had researched her beforehand. She didn't understand where this sudden anger was coming from though- Oh, right. ( Y / N ).

Sans, upon seeing the anger on her face, frowned. "Pardon the intrusion of privacy, but it's not like I can expect you to tell me anyway, even if you had your memories back."

To be honest, Two didn't mind him doing research on ( Y / N ) at all - it saved her work, really. Judging from her words and her burst of anger earlier, ( Y / N ) begged to differ. Obviously, she didn't say any of this out loud. "Well, that much is true, I suppose," she muttered.

"Besides, you should hear what I found out anyway. It might make more sense to you, actually, if it somehow jogs some memories of yours. That is, if you still want to know."

 _Of course_ she did.

"Of course I do. So, what is it that you found out?" she said almost too eagerly. Sans caught on to this of course - going by his raised eyebone - but he said nothing about it.

"When I said I looked you up in the system, it wasn't from a system that _I_ had access to. Your name had _only_ a matching result in the Human Kingdom's missing persons database," Sans said, pausing only to let his words sink in a little. "Leading up to your sudden disappearance, you were a patient at Alexandria Hospital, admitted because you'd collapsed down a flight of stairs when you suddenly blacked out. You had spent only a few nights there before you vanished, somewhere during the day. No leads were ever found," Sans finished.

She chuckled and then began laughing. Oh, this was _brilliant_. Just utterly, perfectly brilliant. Chara was going to have _so_ much explaining to do once she managed to get them alone somewhere. "Nope, sorry, that doesn't ring a bell at all."

Sans let his skull hit the tree bark behind him. He swore under his breath.

"You were hoping for some sort of lead, huh?"

"Yup. Well, I suppose it was worth a shot. Sorry about that."

"About what?"

"Doing research about you behind your back. You seemed really pissed off about that. I really thought it would have helped us both," Sans admitted, sighing again. "We're both back to square one... I suppose."

They fell into silence again after that. An idea popped into her mind then. These ideas were going to be the death of her - literally. She just couldn't help it, though. It seemed like the perfect solution.

"You need help, right?"

Sans gave her an odd look, nodding slowly - almost warily.

"Is it correct for me to assume that the Executors are still looking for the ones behind the Soul Extraction?" Sans nodded. She smirked.

"In that case, why not use me as bait then? The ones who caused my disappearance and the ones behind the experiments in that laboratory would surely still be looking for me - assuming that these two parties are not one and the same, of course, but they most likely are, so..."

Sans went deathly silent for a while at that. The pupils in his eyes disappeared.

"I'll think about it."

"Ah, so you two _were_ here the entire time!" Undyne's voice reached her ears. Both she and Sans looked up at that as Undyne came running over to where they were.

"Having a little _conversation_ , I see," Undyne said, grinning wide and mischievously.

Sans narrowed his eye-sockets at the fish monster. Two did the same, not missing at all what Undyne was implying. Undyne continued grinning like she had just discovered a secret no one else knew.

"It's alright, I'll keep it a secret!" Undyne gave the two of them a thumbs-up. Two gave a horrified expression while Sans just face-palmed. Undyne laughed upon seeing their reactions.

"You two go on ahead, I'll _ketchup_ to you guys," Sans told Two and Undyne. Undyne nodded, leaving with Two in tow. She stumbled around a bit at first because Undyne was walking so fast. Soon enough, they were out of the forest.

"Ah, Undyne's found you, I see." She could hear the smile in Toriel's voice.

"Where's Sans, though?" Asriel asked.

"Sans said he will catch up to us. He told us to go on without him," Two repeated what Sans told her.

"Huh, well, if he said so... Alright, let's go!" Frisk cheered on happily.

Everyone gathered as a group and began making their way towards Waterfall. It was only after several minutes that she realised that her arms and hands were feeling a bit... bare, empty.

'Crap, I left the basket behind in the forest!'

Just as she turned around, someone grabbed her wrist from behind.

"You left this behind."

She had to swallow a scream. Right beside her was Sans, who had seemingly appeared from nowhere. In his other hand was the very basket that she had left behind. The first question that crossed her mind was: 'how?' He proceeded to deposit said basket in her hand before walking away towards the group. Two quickly ran up to him.

"How did you catch up so quickly? We left several minutes ahead of you! I didn't hear you approaching at all..."

Sans grinned, shrugging. "I know some shortcuts here and there."

Two made a show of looking at Sans from head to toe. Sans smirked. "Like what you see?" Two rolled her eyes.

"I figured for someone as _big-boned_ as you, you wouldn't be able to move so quickly without making a sound. Huh, guess I was wrong."

"Are you trying to say I'm _fat_?" Sans remarked, pretending to be affronted when he was clearly amused.

"Well, _are_ you?" she replied, placing unnecessary emphasis on her words.

"Wow, no subtlety about it at all."

"I call it genuine curiosity," she said, chuckling. "With you always clad in that huge jacket of yours, I can't really tell. At least in Papyrus' case, I know that his skeleton structure is similar to that of a human's."

"Is that your way of trying to get me out of my clothes?" Sans leaned in, whispering teasingly.

"Well, it depends. Are you offering?" she whispered back.

They locked eyes for a long minute before breaking out into peals of laughter. She clutched at her sides, doubling over slightly. Even Undyne came over and asked what was so funny, to which Sans responded with:

"It's absolutely _non-sans-ical_ ," he chuckled. "I was just telling her about the most famous skeleton detective who ever lived and she doesn't know him. Do you know the guy?"

Undyne's face scrunched up in concentration as she tried to think up a name. She shook her head. "No, who is it?"

"Sherlock _Bones_."

"Sans!" Undyne screeched, throwing her arms up in the air dramatically before stomping over to the front again where she complained to Papyrus about what Sans said. The smaller skeleton began chuckling.

Wiping a stray tear from her eyes, she looked up at Sans. "That's _butter_ _non-sans_ , Sans, and you know it."

The laughter returned again. Sans gave her a thumbs-up. "That's a good one," he said in-between laughs.

They made small talk for some time after that. Sans mostly talked about his work - how ridiculous it could be sometimes dealing with the Human Kingdom, the criminals he'd met in the past, et cetera. Two enjoyed listening to Sans' stories. Sans didn't once bring up whatever that was exchanged in the forest - as if it never happened. Occasionally, they slipped back into a comfortable silence, but she didn't mind. Every once in a while she would ask Sans a question or two about the things she saw in her environment and he would explain. She had plenty of questions about Monsters and the Monster Kingdom, really, but she reined herself in so as to not embarrass herself.

"We're here."

They reached the exit the moment the sun began setting in the distance. The light rays painted the sky in brilliant hues of orange and pink - it was a breathtaking sight. Everyone put down their things in a pile to one side and stood and admired the sunset for a while. Alphys took out her phone to take a picture. Papyrus saw this and had a different idea.

"ALRIGHT EVERYONE. SELFIE TIME!" Papyrus announced before getting into position. Everyone scrambled to squeeze into the picture. Chara, Asriel and Frisk were at the front, beside Papyrus. Toriel, Sans and Two were right behind them. Undyne lifted Alphys with both arms so that she could be in the picture, leading to Alphys blushing furiously in the background.

After that, Frisk and Toriel immediately began laying the picnic mats. Everyone else began laying out the food, drinks, plates and cutlery. After everything was set up, everyone gathered round the food and dug in. It was only when everyone was eating that Two realised two particular skeleton brothers weren't around. Looking around, she saw Sans and Papyrus further up on the mountain side, on a cliff of sorts. Grabbing a ketchup bottle from the cooler box, she told Toriel that she was going to look for the skelebrothers before climbing up the steep side leading to said cliff.

"What are you two doing? Everyone's started eating already - there won't be much left, you know," she said to the both of them once they were within earshot.

Papyrus, seemingly startled, turned around. "OH, LOOKS LIKE WE GOT DISTRACTED SETTING THIS UP. LET'S GO, SANS!" Papyrus said to Sans before starting to head back. It was only after Papyrus moved away that she saw what they were setting up. It was a telescope. Sans lingered behind, running a hand slowly over its cylindrical frame.

"You brought a telescope? Awesome!" she gasped out, genuinely surprised. When did they bring one? She didn't recall them bringing a telescope over for the sleepover. She walked up to Sans.

"Well, that's why I told you and the rest to go on without me. I had to stop by home to grab this."

"You went back home to grab this and yet you still managed to catch up to us? Wow, okay. I am not doubting your ability to run ever again."

"Ketchup."

"Huh?"

"It's what you're holding in your hand, silly."

Looking down, she saw the bottle of ketchup she had grabbed earlier.

"Oh. R-Right. Here ya go," she stuttered, holding out the bottle for him to take. Sans accepted the bottle and muttered his thanks.

"Chilled ketchup - it's the _best_." She smiled at that.

"Anyway, the food's gonna get cold. Don't take too long." She turned around and made to climb back down.

"I'll come down after I'm done setting this thing up, don't worry," Sans replied. She answered back with a wave of the hand.

Long after Two disappeared from view, Sans turned to stare at the bottle of ketchup in his hands. He made no move to open it.

"Ketchup, huh."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the slightly late update - hopefully this slightly longer chapter with more Sans interaction makes up for it...?
> 
>  **PSA** :
> 
> Anyway, updating schedule's gonna be a bit wonky for the next coming weeks. I'm starting university soon so I don't know how regularly I can update this then what with all the moving, freshmen stuff and settling down stuff going on. So far, it's been one chapter per week, and I'm really happy that I've met that goal thus far. I'll try my best to work on it day-by-day and we'll see how it goes.
> 
> Again, thank you so much for all the support! <3


	9. Changing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans can tell that things are changing - and he doesn't like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to replace ( Y / N ) with your name / a name for a more personalised reading experience.
> 
> AND I'M BACK.
> 
> I hope you guys are still with me even after all this time ; u ;  
> Lots of stuff happened since the last time I updated this. I started university in a country that's not my own, moved into dorm of said uni, met new faces, got lost in campus a couple of times... Oh, and Don't Starve Together and Pokemon Go.
> 
> During these weeks, this story hasn't been far from my mind, either. I gave it much thought and decided that, for the sake of myself and everyone following this, I would shorten the overall length of this story. Having said that, I'll be cutting out portions of the fic which I think are repetitive. You guys will see this come into play in this chapter as well as the next, where there will be multiple timeskips involved.
> 
> My reason for doing this is simple: I don't want a draggy fic. I don't want to have to write filler events and I don't want to subject my readers to them either. Much of the day-by-day interaction between Reader/Player and the UT gang is gonna have to be cut out - except for certain important ones. So, you can expect the pacing to pick up soon - starting from the next chapter, actually.
> 
> I hope you guys have been well! Without further ado, here's the next chapter!

Sans had his doubts before, but this - oh... _this_ just takes the cake!

He removed the cap from the bottle with barely any effort at all, tucking the cap into a pocket as he took a swig of ketchup. As he made his way down, he thought about ( Y / N )'s offer. Use her as bait, she had said. It wasn't the words that had caught his attention, but the expression she had when she had said those words. She had seemed almost excited to be used as bait to catch her captors - what sort of logic was going through her mind when she said that? She didn't seem to be afraid of dying - not in the slightest. Did her desire to seek answers or to exact revenge override all sense of self-preservation?

Sans didn't want to believe the report he had gotten from Rei, but everything just seemed to point in that direction now. He had read the doctor's report - he knew about ( Y / N )'s aneurysm, about how she had limited time left to live. If she knew about it too, then her actions would make some sense at least - a dying man has nothing to lose, after all. But, she claimed to have no memories whatsoever of her old life. At this point, Sans was far more inclined to believe that she was lying, especially since she'd confessed to having some secrets of her own already - despite her claims that she had no memories of her old life. In the forest, he had only let it slide because he had been sure she wouldn't say anything helpful anymore.

As for the report and the strange circumstances surrounding ( Y / N )'s hospitalisation and later kidnapping, he'd left Rei with the task of confirming the report's authenticity as well as finding out what happened during the few days she was in the hospital. It would cost him quite a bit of gold, surely, but it was necessary.

His gaze fell on ( Y / N ), who was happily conversing with those he held so dear to him. She was a living, breathing, walking contradiction. He couldn't quite tell what her motives were yet, although she didn't seem to be harbouring any ill intent.

The next person his gaze landed on was Chara - at least, the person who called themselves Chara. In his mind, there was only ever one Chara - the demonic human child with crimson eyes who had, more than once, murdered everyone he cared about. He still hadn't dismissed this as coincidence - coincidences didn't exist when this demon was involved. He just didn't know how it was possible for Chara to be here like this. Now, he was just waiting for them to slip up on the act, thus providing him with a reason to kill them. Until then, he wouldn't attempt anything. Although Toriel may not remember, Sans had promised her after all.

Chara, the Resets, the Soul Extraction, the Meltdown, and now ( Y / N ). _Wonderful_.

Well, on the brighter side of things, at least he had a chance to watch the meteor shower this time around. In most of the other timelines, Executor stuff happened.

Sans sat down beside Papyrus. Almost mechanically, he grabbed a clean plate and grabbed some grub for himself, not really paying attention to what he was taking. The ketchup bottle seemed to burn him the longer it stayed hidden in his coat pocket. He had to confirm a theory, but in order to do that, he needed to catch Frisk alone, which he wasn't sure he was able to do right now.

Undyne nudged him. Sans quietly turned to her.

"So... You and ( Y / N ), huh?" Undyne whispered and then took a sip of juice from the bottle in her hand.

Sans rolled his eyes. Putting the plate of food down, he leaned back on his arms. "It's not like that. We were just having a conversation."

Undyne crossed her arms, waiting for further elaboration. He sighed. "Look," he said, sneaking a glance at ( Y / N )'s direction just to check that she was preoccupied. Once he was sure, he continued, "She may not act like it, but she's still affected by what happened to her." At the very mention of her kidnapping, Undyne's expression became solemn. "I was just checking with her to see if she was doing okay. I can't possibly be the only one who has realised this."

He left out all the important bits, but it was pretty much the truth.

Undyne frowned, but didn't push for any more details. All they knew was what Frisk had told them. Sans told Frisk to only tell them about how ( Y / N ) had been kidnapped by those possibly behind the Soul Extractions, had ended up in Underground when she was trying to escape, was an amnesiac, and that Sans had been the one who found her. He had Frisk bend the truth a bit. He couldn't let Asgore know.

"She still wants to go back, ya know."

"W-What! Why?"

"Who can blame her? She's lived her entire life there."

"Guys, it's starting!" Alphys squealed excitedly, eyes skyward.

Taking a step back, he teleported to the cliff earlier and perched himself on the edge, eyes tracing the paths left behind by the streaks of light in the sky. He wasn't as awestruck by the meteor shower as before - having seen this at least a dozen times already - but it still was a pretty sight to behold. Somewhere below, he could hear Papyrus' excited talking. Alphys and Undyne were off to one side admiring the view while videoing the entire thing while the rest stood and watched the meteor shower.

He would give anything to keep this reality.

The night ended uneventfully. They spent some time stargazing, eating some more food, taking turns on Sans' telescope and everyone had a good time.

When they were passing through Hotland on their way back to Toriel's home, Sans' phone pinged. A shudder passed through him. He had a sixth sense about these things. Somehow, he just _knew_ he wouldn't like the contents of that text message. Sans stopped and turned to glance at Undyne and Papyrus - they carried on unperturbed. Whipping out his phone, he checked the message.

'We have a Phantom.' It was Asgore. He sent back an 'ok'.

Striding over to Undyne, he placed the basket he was carrying on top the ones she was already carrying.

"Hey, carry your own basket, lazybones!" Undyne chided light-heartedly. When Sans didn't respond back in kind, she frowned.

"Sorry guys, Asgore summoned me," Sans told everyone. Almost everyone shot him a concerned look - save Chara, of course. Chara just looked on with a blank expression.

"Is everything alright?" Toriel asked.

Sans nodded. "Yeah. It isn't anything major, so don't worry."

"It shouldn't take long. I'll see you guys back at Tori's place," he said, waving. Everyone wished him some variant of 'good luck' or 'take care' just as he teleported directly into headquarters.

At this time of the night, headquarters was as silent as a graveyard. The only ones on duty were the ones manning the operations room and the security systems. Walking across the foyer, his footsteps resounded through the cavernous room. Getting into the elevator, he scanned his palm on the scanner above the elevator buttons and then hit the button for the deepest basement floor thrice followed by the close button twice. This sequence would bring those authorised by Asgore to a secret floor that Sans liked to call, 'The Dungeon'. It pretty much served to hold the headquarters' prison cells and torture rooms - befitting its name, really. Everyone who worked here knew about its existence, but only a select number of agents had access to it. The button-pressing sequence was only implemented due to public scrutiny - some people became a bit too curious about the headquarter's lower levels.

The moment the doors opened, light poured out from the elevator into the darkness beyond. Walking out, he used his phone's screen to light the rest of the way to the prison cells. Somewhere above him, red blips of light reminded him that he wasn't alone - the automated turrets installed here were designed and programmed by Alphys to shoot at anything whose Soul signature was not registered in the security system. The turrets were loaded with two types of ammunition: tranquilliser darts and live ammunition. As far as he knew, these turrets never had to be used. All prisoners were heavily bound and shackled prior to any movement of prisoners and they were transported only via teleportation.

He made his way to the prison area without any fuss - he had memorised the route by heart by now.

He found Asgore standing right outside one of the cells with a torchlight in his hands. The beam of light was being cast onto the floor by his feet. As Sans approached, Asgore turned in his direction and acknowledged his presence with a sharp nod.

"My apologies for calling you at this time of the night - on your day off, too."

"It's fine. So, the usual?"

"Yes."

Sans peered into the darkness. Two eyes were staring back at him, though he knew that couldn't be possible, what with the one-way glass separating the both of them.

"Our agents caught him murdering his girlfriend by the river. His EXP is still only at zero."

"Hence, the Phantom alert. Do you know how many times he's killed?"

"His girlfriend's younger sister was already dead by the time they got to the scene."

"Ah."

The story that was fed to the public was that Alphys' invention - her 'CHECK' application - enabled Executors to read the target's Level of Violence and Execution Points. What they weren't told, however, was that it was only an attempt at copying Sans' ability of Judgement. Alphys never managed to perfect the program. In some rare cases, certain individuals couldn't be reliably checked. For these individuals, their LV and EXP remained unchanging, no matter how many times they've killed. Alphys speculated that it had something to do with their mental state - like their minds didn't register their actions as... killing. That was usually when Sans was called in for the job instead.

Focusing his magic on the target, he narrowed his eyes in concentration. He could see their LV and EXP as if they were words appearing hovering over the target.

He took a deep breath. "LV 9. EXP 485."

Asgore nodded. "Duly noted. Thank you."

Different levels of LOVE correspond to different 'punishments'. LV 2 to LV 5 warranted an arrest and immediate prison sentence unless they had an official pardon. LV 6 to LV 9 without official pardon was a one-way ticket to the kill room. LV 10 and above without an official pardon was a kill-on-sight. Every Executor knew this by heart.

Sans nodded. He turned back the way he came from and went on his not-so-merry way. Once he was in the elevator, he pushed the button for the ground floor. After stepping out of the metal box, he made a sharp turn into a darkened corridor leading away from the foyer. He reached into his jacket's pocket, retrieved the unfinished bottle of ketchup and slurped the rest of it before throwing the bottle into a trash-bin by the wall. He teleported directly to Toriel's doorstep.

He put on his typical calm - but somewhat tired - facade before grasping the door handle. Turning the handle and pushing the door open, he was met with a chorus of 'welcome back's and well wishes. Frisk - ever the understanding one - wordlessly ran into the kitchen to make him a bowl of chips, generously topped with ketchup, with an extra bottle of chilled ketchup. He muttered his thanks and plopped down on the carpeted floor by the side of the couch, leaning back onto a mountain of soft pillows to watch the movie as he munched on the chips. They were about half-way through the movie already, but Sans knew this one, since he watched it before in some other timeline.

The rest of the night continued in a similar fashion. The movies were all hand-picked by the one and only, Alphys. They were a mix of sci-fi, fantasy and adventure genres and were a welcomed distraction. But, even the movie marathon had to end at some point. After four movies back-to-back, it was well past two in the morning. Those who still had enough sleep in them managed to brush their teeth and get into bed properly. Others - namely Papyrus and Frisk - fell asleep on the couch. Undyne had to carry Frisk upstairs while Sans levitated Papyrus onto his sleeping bag.

Now lying down in his own sleeping bag, Sans stared blankly at the dark ceiling over his head. The only other sounds in the room were that of Papyrus' and Asriel's breathing. Papyrus was beside him near the wall while Asriel was on the couch somewhere to the left of him. Everyone had gone to bed hours ago.

Sleep was not coming to him easy tonight. He settled for just closing his eyes.

 _Creak_.

Muffled footsteps crept down the staircase. Cracking open an eye-socket, he snuck a peek in the general direction the sound was coming from.

'( Y / N )?'

She walked straight past him, through the empty space between him and Asriel, towards the front door. She closed the door behind her with a click. Sitting up and leaning back on his elbows, he stared at the door. It seemed someone else couldn't fall asleep either. Pushing aside the covers, he crept towards the door, opening it as quietly as he could. As the door swung open, he found himself locking eyes with ( Y / N ). Tilting her head slightly, she frowned.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" she spoke quietly. Sans closed the door and joined her at the steps of the doorstep.

"Nah, you didn't. I just couldn't fall asleep. Insomnia." She nodded and started playing with the hem of her pyjamas.

"Nightmare. Luckily, I didn't scream, otherwise the entire house would be awake now," she chuckled humourlessly.

"Talking about it might help?" he suggested. She heaved a sigh, shaking her head and said nothing more on the matter. Okay, so the nightmare was something personal then. Or, maybe she couldn't remember what it was. Regardless, he remained silent.

When she started swaying from side to side, Sans grabbed her gently by the shoulder. "Hey, c'mon, this isn't a place for you to fall asleep at. Let's get you back up to your room."

She waved off his help. "I'll be okay. You should catch some sleep, too." She stood up then, stumbling slightly at her first few steps. Turning back to the door, she opened it and held it open for him.

"Yeah," came his reply as he stepped through, shutting the door and locking it. "Good night, ( Y / N )."

She didn't reply. Even in the darkness, the frown on her face said plenty.

Crawling back into his sleeping bag, he tried falling asleep again. It took him a while, but he did, eventually. He fell asleep with thoughts of lies and whispered promises drifting through his mind.

. . .

Morning dawned bright and clear. That being Papyrus switching on the lights in the living room and dousing everything in a flash of white light. Sans didn't manage to pull the sleeping bag over his skull quite fast enough. He blamed it on the lack of sleep. He let out a tired groan, followed by him burrowing his skull underneath his pillow and wrapping the sleeping bag tighter around his form in what was a vain attempt to shield out the light.

"RISE AND SHINE, SANS. YOU'RE THE LAST ONE TO GET UP!"

"Typical Sans, hahaha..." Toriel's laughter drifted from the direction of the kitchen. Someone padded over to where Sans was and nudged him in the side of his ribs.

"Hey, c'mon Sans, your breakfast is gonna get cold." They'd sent Frisk to wake him - perfect.

He pulled down the covers and shot a weak glare at the kid, but he was no match for the kid's Determination. They won the staring match, obviously. Sluggishly, he emerged from the cocoon of fabric he had wrapped himself in. He'd roll up the sleeping bag later, if he felt like doing it. Papyrus, on the other hand, was staring down at him from the other side, watching him with an annoyed expression on his face.

"I'll do it later..."

"YOU'D BETTER REMEMBER THAT," Papyrus said before making his way back to the kitchen. Sans and Frisk followed after him.

Bacon and eggs; yum. He settled down on an empty seat between Frisk and Papyrus and dug in. He was the last to finish - everyone else had already finished theirs and were either waiting around idly or sipping on some drink.

"So, what's the plan after this?" Asriel asked.

"FRISK, ALPHYS AND UNDYNE HAVE PROVIDED AN EXCELLENT SELECTION OF ANIME TO WATCH!" Papyrus informed him excitedly. In a louder voice than before, he said to everyone, "ALSO AS A SURPRISE, UNDYNE AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE COOKING LUNCH FOR EVERYBODY! I WILL BE PREPARING MY LATEST SPAGHETTI RECIPE, AREN'T ALL OF YOU EXCITED?"

Sans internally cringed - he felt bad for the humans already. "Uh... Yeah, sure, Paps. Can't wait to taste it," he said, smiling. Papyrus let out a whoop at that. Out of the corner of his eye-socket, he saw Frisk and Chara pale. He saw Frisk shoot him a glance that practically screamed 'help'. He shrugged and mouthed the words, "I'll try."

Beside Frisk, Toriel gave him a disappointed look. Crap, she must have caught onto the silent conversation he had with Frisk. He looked away guiltily as he returned to his food. He practically inhaled his food - like he did for dinner last night - and gulped down the rest of his coffee. He didn't want to keep everyone waiting.

"Alright, I'm done," he said, picking it the plate and walking over to place it in the sink. "Let's start, shall we?" As he walked past Frisk, he tapped them on the shoulder to grab their attention. With his other hand - hidden by his body and the table - he made a finger motion that pointed upwards. Frisk didn't show any outward sign of having understood what he'd meant, but Sans had faith they did. Sans circled around the table towards the bathroom near the back of the house as everyone began clearing the kitchen to head out into the living room.

"I just need to freshen up a bit; you guys go ahead and start without me," Sans said, before disappearing into the bathroom.

He counted twenty seconds before teleporting into the master bedroom.

Frisk was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"So, what is it?" They got straight to the point.

"Did you tell ( Y / N ) that I liked ketchup?"

Frisk frowned. "No, I didn't."

"Do you know if Toriel did?"

"I wouldn't imagine she did. You and Papyrus were not exactly an everyday conversation topic."

"Papyrus has been at work or with me the entire time before the sleepover, so he couldn't have told ( Y / N ) either. She only just met the others yesterday, so, where does that leave us?"

Frisk connected the dots almost instantly. "But, that doesn't make sense..."

"Hardly anything makes sense right now, in fact. Too many unknown variables," he grumbled the last bit out.

"It could just be coincidence?"

"I doubt so. She was hardly even surprised when I drank it in front of her. That usually gets me a reaction out of anyone, if its their first time."

"I'll ask mom just to be sure," Frisk said.

"Anyway, once I'm back home, I'll do a bit of reading and see if anything comes up. Do ask Tori, but be subtle about it," he told Frisk. Frisk raised a questioning eyebrow at that.

"Alright then, let's head back downstairs," Frisk said, taking a plush teddy bear from the bed with them.

He teleported back into the bathroom and to keep up with appearances, he let the water run for a bit from the sink before shutting it off and leaving. Just as he entered the living room, Frisk came down the stairs with the teddy bear in their arms.

"You went back up just for that?" Undyne said. She laughed when Frisk merely nodded in reply.

Sans plopped down by the side of the couch - again - just as Alphys started the first anime.

He mentally sighed. It was going to be a long day.

. . .

"Thanks for coming, everyone!"

"See you next time, punks!" "B-Bye guys!" "See ya."

"Come and visit us any time!"

"Of course, mom." "Until next time." "FAREWELL MY DEAREST FRIENDS!"

Undyne, Alphys, Asriel and Chara took the Riverperson's boat at Snowdin. The skele-brothers split ways with the rest of group there. Then, it was just the two of them, walking through Snowdin towards their own home.

"SANS, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

Sans stopped to look at Papyrus in the eye. Papyrus had stopped too. "Of course I'm fine. Why would you say that?"

That reply only seemed to worry the younger skeleton even further. "YOU SEEM DISTRACTED, LIKE YOUR MIND IS FOCUSED ON OTHER THINGS," Papyrus explained, frowning. "YOU WEREN'T ENJOYING YOURSELF EITHER. IS IT BECAUSE OF WORK?"

Close, but not quite.

"WHILE I'M HAPPY THAT YOU'RE PUTTING EFFORT INTO SOMETHING FOR ONCE, YOU SHOULDN'T LET WORK BECOME MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY OR YOUR FRIENDS."

Sans shuffled about uneasily.

"Yeah, you're right bro, I let work get the better of me this time. I'll try my best not to let it happen again."

"I'M GLAD YOU UNDERSTAND! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS NEVER WRONG ABOUT HIS OWN BROTHER AFTER ALL!" Papyrus proclaimed loudly, before laughing his trademark 'nyeh heh heh' laugh.

Later that night, after reading a bedtime story to Papyrus, Sans teleported down into the basement lab to do some reading of his own. Only when the words started looking a bit fuzzy did he teleport back into his room to get some sleep.

This repeated itself for the next few weeks.

Sans only managed this without collapsing by catching up on sleep whenever he could during some of his sentry duties. Undyne caught him sleeping on the job once or twice, and each time she threatened to put him on office duty. It was a threat that worked on him because he loathed paperwork and the long office hours, so he made sure to set up one of his blasters on watch duty to warn him whenever someone was approaching his station.

Weeks passed by in this manner. Work. Home. Sleep. Friday Hangout with the others and Papyrus. Lunch with Tori on Saturday. Helping Frisk with their homework on Sunday. Work. Nap. Research. Work. Work work work. Work-

By the time he realised it, it was already the second week of July. Less than twenty until the day of the Meltdown.

Gaster's notes on his experiments on the Void and on the Anomaly did shed some light on some things, but it didn't exactly _fit_ into the situation of things right now. Call it a gut feeling or whatever, but Sans could tell he was close - he could feel it in his bones. Just some more logical connections here and there and everything would make sense. At the moment, he felt like he was merely grasping at thin air - trying to solve a puzzle without all the pieces.

He was in the midst of reading the last parts of his notes on the couch in the living room at home when it happened.

His phone rang.

"Paps?"

"SANS, TURN ON THE TV, NOW!"

Sans frowned at the urgency in his brother's voice. Seeing no reason to object, Sans grabbed the remote lying on the coffee table in front of him and switched said television on.

The first channel he landed on was streaming live from the Monster Parliament. Asgore was speaking, and beside him were-

"Frisk? Chara...?" Sans questioned out loud.

"KING ASGORE CHOSE THE TWO OF THEM AS THE FIRST CANDIDATES FOR CITIZENSHIP CONVERSION. IT'S FINALLY BEEN PASSED! FRISK AND CHARA CAN LIVE WITH US IN THE MONSTER KINGDOM NOW!"

Wait, what?

"T-That's great, bro! We don't need to worry about them breaking Monster laws any more whenever they hang out with us," Sans added, making sure he sounded happy and excited for them.

"I KNOW! ISN'T THAT GREAT! SINCE THEY'RE THE FIRST ONES, ASGORE WANTS TO ORGANISE THIS HUGE PARTY ON THE-"

Sans zoned out for the rest of the conversation, memories of previous timelines streaming through his mind.

'This has never happened before.'

The very thought terrified him.

Why now?

Sans was glad Papyrus was still at work - he wasn't sure if he was able to keep up appearances right now.

Beside Asgore, Frisk had a look of pure joy. Chara, on the other hand, acted completely indifferent.

But Sans knew what Chara's flavour of indifference was. It was _**not**_ that.

Standing on-stage, beside Frisk, Chara looked... almost smug.

After Asgore finished his speech, all three of them held hands and posed for the cameras to come. Sans switched off the television then, suddenly feeling nauseous.

"That's awesome. Can't wait for it," Sans said to Papyrus before ending the call soon after as Papyrus had to go back to work.

Sans sat on the couch, staring at the now blank screen of the television. After some deliberation, Sans decided on his answer.

Using his phone, he typed up a quick message:

'No.'

And hit the 'send' button.

And then, he waited.


	10. Crossroads

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New tag(s) will be added soon after this chapter goes up.
> 
> Happy One-Year Anniversary Undertale! - Thank you, toby, for a wonderful year of memories <3  
> Here's to another awesome year ahead!
> 
> Feel free to replace ( Y / N ) with your name / a name for a more personalised reading experience.
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> For the warning(s) on this chapter, see End Notes.
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The days that followed were filled with joy and fun. Whenever Toriel and Frisk weren't at home, she would preoccupy herself with reading or binge-watching TV or doing whatever else she wanted to do. Whenever they _were_ home, she'd be busy doing all sorts of stuff with them. Sometimes, during the weekends, all three of them would spend time with the skelebrothers, Alphys, Undyne, Mettaton, Asriel and even Chara. Chara and Asriel were absent most of the time, nonetheless, they had lots of fun. Things would have been better if Chara weren't around at all though. She forced herself to smile and act normally when it came to Chara, for the sake of everyone else.

It was almost scary how easy it was to lie to herself. Who was she even trying to convince?

Sometimes, even the joy and fun she had experienced with those who had become her friends felt fake - like everything was a mere ruse to distract herself from the worries and fears plaguing her mind. She tried hard to not think about going back to the Human Kingdom - to find the cause of all of this and fix everything - but it was _hard_.

She also spent long hours waiting for a reply from Sans. But, Sans never gave her a reply. It's been a week now, since then.

Sometimes she wondered if he'd forgotten about it. But, knowing the sort of person Sans was, he wouldn't forget such an important thing. Perhaps he was too busy with other things - his job, for one thing - and she really shouldn't push him for an answer, but-

She just couldn't help but feel somewhat anxious about his answer.

If he said yes, then she'd be one step closer to fixing this mess she'd made.

If he said no, then... well.

She was pondering over her options if Sans said no when Frisk returned from their lesson with Alphys. And Frisk being Frisk, immediately sensed that something was wrong.

"Are you okay?"

Her head snapped up. "Huh? Oh, I'm fine. I'm just... thinking."

Frisk did a dramatic eye-roll here. "Yeah, I can see that. But, you look like something's bothering you."

"..."

"Wanna talk about it?" Frisk said, putting their bag down on the floor by the couch as they took a seat beside her.

She did a half-shrug with one shoulder. "I don't know what I should do now." That literally summarised her problems, actually, whether Frisk knew about them or not.

Frisk gave her a look. Two didn't know what that look meant. "Well, there's plenty of stuff to do if you're alone and bored here, like-"

"What? No, no, it's not that," she shook her head to emphasise that. She scrambled to put together a lie convincing enough for Frisk. "I mean, what do I do for the future? I mean, everyone's doing _something_ with their lives, but... What about me? Should I go get a job or something? _Can_ I even get one here, as a human?"

"Of course you can get a job here, silly," Frisk rolled their eyes again here, before continuing. "Well, is there anything you're interested in? What do you like to do? Let's start from there."

"Well, I like science. And because of Tori, I like to bake now, too."

Frisk gave it some thought. When they reached a conclusion they were happy with, they smiled broadly.

"Alphys is looking for an assistant, how about you go try it out? Alphys works on really interesting stuff."

"Helping out with experiments, eh?" That did sound interesting. It was way better than spending her remaining days as ( Y / N ) lazing around - waiting and doing nothing, at least. And Alphys dabbled in Soul Research as well, didn't she? Maybe Alphys could help her out!

"I'd sign up for it if she wanted a part-time assistant instead of a full-time one, you know. But, I have lessons and... stuff, so I can't. How about you head over to her lab and ask her about it? I just came from her lab, so she should still be there."

And with that, she found herself making her way over to the Riverperson to grab a shortcut to Hotland. Getting off the boat - while being extra careful not to slip into the lava by mistake - Two thanked them for the ride.

The Riverperson gave her a nod in reply. Two turned with the intent to leave, but a soft voice made her halt in her steps.

"Perhaps, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, lost one. You should treasure what you have now."

Those words sent shivers down her spine. Refusing to give into the temptation of asking them what they meant by that, Two marched onwards.

Two found the lab easily enough, considering there was only one in the Underground.

"Oh, ( Y / N ), how nice to see you! W-What brings you here, though?" Alphys greeted as she reached up to push up her glasses.

"Frisk told me you're looking for an assistant...?" she began warily.

Alphys' eyes lit up with excitement. "O-Oh! Are you applying for the position? Well, technically, t-there's no application process and only my input is needed to decide the final candidate, b-but, anyway, I think you'll do just fine. Welcome aboard!"

Slightly embarrassed, Two stuttered out her thanks before Alphys motioned for her to follow as she began showing her around the place. Alphys showed her where the various materials and apparatus were stored, where the current experiments were being conducted, the storerooms, et cetera. By the end of it all, Two had a vague idea of where everything was. It was enough for her to find her way around without getting lost, at least. Alphys also explained what her tasks would be, including data entry, configuring equipment based on the given instructions, recording observations and cleaning up after experiments.

"I'm actually p-packing up for today already, so we'll start tomorrow proper, alright?"

"Sure, you're the boss here after all," she replied with a chuckle. Alphys' face went slightly red at that. After Alphys locked up the lab, they parted ways. Alphys went off to meet Undyne for dinner while Two headed back to Tori's place. Two met Papyrus along the way and they exchanged a few words before the both of them headed their separate ways again. She had lasagna for dinner - well, the Monster's version of it, which was pretty much just like normal lasagna but purple in colour and doubled in terms of size - and it was delicious. After watching some nonsensical shows on the TV with Frisk and Toriel for a few more hours, everyone headed back to their own rooms to catch some sleep.

It wasn't surprising in the slightest when she'd slept through her alarm the next morning. Fumbling to get her stuff together and to change into more appropriate clothing for the day, she tripped around the room at least twice.

She was now officially late for her first day of work.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid-" she mentally berated herself.

She arrived at the doorstep of Alphys' lab fifteen minutes late.

Apologies were at the tip of her tongue, but when she let herself in - Alphys had her keyed into the system the day before - said monster was nowhere to be found.

"Alphys?"

She searched high and low, but found no signs of the monster. Two was just about to give up and call her when Alphys came stumbling into the lab fifteen minutes after she'd arrived.

"A-Ah, sorry, I sort of overslept," Alphys stuttered out, face bright red from embarrassment.

They shared a look and burst into laughter. Two could tell this was going to be fun.

After settling down, Alphys gave her access to the computer and gave her some things to file as well while she worked on this experiment of hers down in the basement. The work was simple enough - it was mostly data entry and recording observations anyway. As long as she stayed alert and recorded the observations correctly according to Alphys' instructions, all was well. Alphys came up from the basement every once in a while, often bringing with her various materials and tools down into the basement. Two couldn't help but grow curious about what she was doing down there. The fact that Alphys always came up looking almost haggard only made her all the more curious - and concerned as well.

After several days of witnessing this, Two decided to just ask Alphys outright.

"Oh, the b-basement? W-Well... This experiment has had me stumped for some weeks now."

"Is the deadline for its completion... fast approaching?"

"No, actually. It's a side-project that Asgore had me work on. He didn't give me a deadline."

"Ah, so you're annoyed that you don't know how to get it to work?"

Alphys looked guilty here, which wasn't the reaction she was going for actually. "Sort of... not really. I know how to get it to work, it's just..."

"...Just?"

"I don't want to make the same mistake again," Alphys deadpanned.

And that marked the end of the conversation. Feeling guilty about digging into something that was obviously sensitive to the other, Two muttered an apology and quietly returned to the computer to continue her work. In the days that followed, Two made sure to never bring up the topic again.

Later that week, Frisk told Two and Toriel about the citizenship conversion policy that Asgore finally managed to put together after many long months of discussion with his own people as well as with Human ambassadors. It was a step - albeit, a small one - towards improving the relations between the two Kingdoms. It wasn't remotely close to Asgore's goal of forming a sort of alliance with the neighbouring Kingdom, but... it was progress at least. This new policy had been met with much resistance from the Monsters, but somehow, Asgore managed it. Frisk spared the both of them the details of the policy, and instead just told them to just turn on the news channel when it's time for the announcement.

Two couldn't be any happier for Frisk. They had always wanted to be part of the Monster community - now, it was finally possible.

Just when she thought that this day was going to be one of the better days that week, she received a message from Sans later that night.

'No.'

...was all the message contained.

She sat down on her bed, unmoving, for almost an hour after that, thinking. She went to sleep with these same dark thoughts lingering in her mind.

Sans' message had dampened her spirits for most of the week. She went about her job listlessly. Alphys noticed this, of course, but respectfully did not ask her about it. Instead, she left cups of calming tea from time to time on her work desk. Toriel and Frisk realised this too. They tried to talk to her about it, but when she refused to say anything on the matter, Toriel resorted to cooking her favourite foods for her instead, hoping that they might make her feel better. The gesture had indeed cheered her up a bit.

Things took a turn for the better when Frisk's grand day finally arrived. The entire household was _overflowing_ with energy.

The sight in the living room that Two woke up to that morning was Toriel fussing over Frisk in their dress. Frisk was pouting, arms crossed as Toriel straightened up their dress. It was almost too adorable to watch. Everything was as perfect as it could ever be, but Toriel being Toriel, was still trying to make it better.

Deciding that Frisk may need backup for this, Two voiced out her opinion, "Tori, I think the dress is just fine."

"Perhaps... Oh, but I just want to make sure...!"

Ten minutes later, Frisk was still posing for Toriel to check their outfit again. Two was trying - and failing - to stifle her giggles. Two had gotten dressed and ready for some time already.

"Mommmm..." Frisk whined.

"Alright, alright. There, everything's perfect. Off we go."

Frisk let out a whoop at that and rushed out of the house, ruining Toriel's work. Seeing this, Toriel sighed and just went to grab her bag and things. Once everyone was ready, they began making their way over to the Monster-side of the barrier where the ceremony would take place. Asgore would present their golden flowers to them there. The entire event was going to be broadcasted worldwide. Two couldn't be any happier for Frisk.

When the trio reached there, Frisk was immediately whisked away by the backstage crew to get them prepped for the ceremony. Toriel and Two waved goodbye before going to take their seats in the VIP section. When they got there, they saw that the others were already there as well.

"TORIEL! YOU'VE FINALLY ARRIVED! I WAS WORRIED THAT YOU WERE GOING TO BE LATE," Papyrus' voiced boomed. By Papyrus' side, Two saw that Sans was standing there. Their gazes met.

"I was helping Frisk get ready. Sorry for coming so late. Frisk just didn't want to wear the dress I'd gotten them for some reason. I managed to persuade them in the end, though."

"I SAW THE HUMAN EARLIER. THE DRESS IS INDEED VERY PRETTY! THAT'S THE PUREST WHITE I HAVE EVER SEEN ON A DRESS!"

"Oh, thank you Papyrus!"

Sans stepped closer to Two.

"Hey."

"Hey yourself," she greeted back warmly. Sans smiled back.

"No hard feelings, eh?"

"Nah, none at all."

"Huh, so it's finally happening."

"I heard from Frisk that this had been in the works for a long time. Are you glad?"

Sans closed his eyes as his smile grew wider still. "Ecstatic."

As the ceremony began, everyone quickly grabbed a seat. Two quickly glanced around.

Alphys was recording the entire thing. Undyne looked absolutely proud. Papyrus was literally at the edge of his seat. Toriel had this almost teary expression on her face. Sans still had his trademark grin on, but he seemed more relaxed today.

On-stage, Mettaton - he was the emcee - did a fantastic job of charming the masses. Everyone was super psyched for the main event by the end of it all.

As Asgore, Chara and Frisk went on-stage, Papyrus and Undyne cheered, their screams almost deafening. They were definitely the loudest out of everyone, that's for sure. After Frisk and Chara had been presented with their golden flowers, they stood on-stage for several more minutes as Asgore launched into his final speech. Frisk was practically glowing with happiness.

Seeing that everyone was taking pictures as well, Two pulled out her own phone to do the same. She focused the camera on Frisk, trying to get the best picture of Frisk as she could. Since the VIP box was directly in front of the stage, it wasn't hard to get a good position for the camera. Holding her hand steady, she made sure to capture Frisk's entire body in it.

Huh?

Her hands were steady, but there was still this moving red smudge of colour on Frisk's dress.

Her eyes widened in realisation.

A scream tore itself out of her throat the same moment the sounds of gunshots sliced through the air. The brief silence that followed was deafening. As if a switch had been flipped, chaos erupted as everyone scrambled to get to safety. There was screaming all around her, but Two couldn't tear her eyes away from Frisk.

There was so much blood.

Toriel had somehow crossed the rows of barriers and was now hugging Frisk tightly. Her hands were glowing green, spells at the tip of her tongue as she tried to heal Frisk. By the stage, Asgore and Undyne were barking orders to lock down the place. Papyrus was helping Toriel with healing. Two slowly weaved through the numerous barriers between the audience and the stage before climbing up to where Frisk was.

Toriel and Papyrus were sobbing. Asriel stood motionless by Toriel's side. Two didn't see Sans walk up to the stage, but somehow, he was there, standing a distance away from where Frisk laid in a pool of their own blood.

She didn't care about any of this right now.

In the chaos, only one person had stood completely still the entire time.

Two glared at Chara. In that exact moment, Two wanted to kill them.

Throwing herself at them, she grabbed Chara by the collar.

"Why? Why did you do this?"

Chara's smirk didn't fade.

"Check. Your move." Chara began giggling manically.

Two released them and took a few steps back, suddenly feeling nauseous.

Was all of this... her fault...?

Chara approached her.

"You know how to find me," they whispered ominously.

"Chara," came Sans' voice.

His eye-sockets were devoid of the pinpricks of light they usually contained. Flickers of blue and yellow sparked from his left. His usual smile was forced.

"Are you going to kill me again?" Chara whispered, smirking. "It's not going to bring Frisk back, ya know~"

"Fuck you-"

"Hahahaha! Look at you two. So desperate and full of despair. It's glorious how all of this turned out, no?"

Two remained mute. Sans summoned a bone projectile and aimed it directly at Chara's heart. They dodged with an agility Sans was not unaccustomed to. The bone lodged itself deeply into the floor of the stage before disappearing a few moments later into magical energy.

"No more Resets. Isn't that what you wanted?" Chara addressed Two directly this time. From the corner of her eye, she saw Sans go wide-eyed at this.

"No, no, no..." Two began shaking her head. "I never meant for things to turn out this way!"

"Wasn't that the case from the very beginning? And yet, here we are," Chara painfully reminded her.

"All of this is your fault!" Two hissed back.

" _My_ fault?" Chara laughed, " _ **You**_ were the one who started this! I merely only followed the trail you left behind."

"I've heard enough Chara. **_Die_**."

Chara leapt back to evade the bones being hurled at them. With reflexes uncharacteristic of any human she'd ever seen before, Chara expertly slipped through every one of Sans' attacks. The entire time, they were smiling wide.

"I wish I could stay to play with you, Sans, but I have to go. See ya~" Chara said in a sing-song voice before slipping into the shadows backstage.

Sans chased after her, leaving Two on her own. Turning slowly back to Frisk, she was met with a hard stare from Asriel.

"( Y / N ), what did Chara mean by that...?"

"I-I..."

"Chara is behind all of this...?" Asriel muttered, his form slightly shaking. "...Why?"

Why indeed.

"I-I don't know-"

"Well, it didn't seem that way to me back there!" Asriel raised his voice suddenly, surprising Two. He took a deep breath before continuing, "Chara is a good person! They... they wouldn't..."

"Asriel, please," Toriel's voice drifted over. It was laced with sadness and sorrow. "How could this possibly be ( Y / N )'s fault?"

"Chara said so earlier. What reason would I have to not trust what Chara said?"

"You've _seen_ what Chara _did_ ," Toriel emphasised once more. Her voice had begun breaking up at this point. She hugged Frisk's still body. "They admitted it themselves, did they not?"

Beside Toriel, Papyrus took off his red scarf and wrapped it around Frisk's neck, gently patting them on the head the entire time.

"Evidently, we all didn't know Chara's true colours," Toriel deadpanned.

What followed after was a blur of speaking to various people whose faces she couldn't remember and repeating the same words over and over again as journalists and reporters circled them relentlessly. They especially targeted Toriel, Frisk's adoptive mother. The questions they asked made her blood boil but Two forced herself to remain calm. Alphys handled the logistics for Frisk's funeral for the time being. Undyne, Papyrus and even Asgore, were out searching for the culprit.

They were trying to make their way back home, but due to the sheer size of the reporters and their crew, it wasn't easy. Two was on the verge of screaming at them to get out of their way when Mettaton stepped in.

"Toriel and ( Y / N ) will not be answering any more questions for the time being. Thank you for taking interest, but please, kindly leave now," Mettaton announced before having his own crew slowly clear a path for Toriel and her to escape through. Two thanked him when he was within earshot - Mettaton returned it with a sharp nod. Slowly, but surely, they made it back to the house.

The house felt eerily quiet. Two felt out of place - like she didn't belong.

Toriel was unsettlingly quiet as well.

"Tori..."

"I am going to retire early today, ( Y / N ). I'll see you tomorrow," Toriel whispered before going upstairs. The door to her room closed with a soft click before silence reigned once more.

Seeing no point in lingering in the hallway, Two returned to her own room as well. Just before she shut the door to her own room, she heard the faint sounds of sobbing coming from Toriel's room. Guilt clenched at her heart.

She was going to climb under the covers and curl up beneath them when her eyes landed on a box laying on top of her pillow.

There was a post-it pasted on the top. She gingerly picked it up and read it.

'You know what you have to do.  
Don't try anything funny; you know  
what will happen if you do.  
\- Chara'

Dropping the note, she opened the box.

Inside was a vial filled with a bright, red, glowing liquid.

"Liquid Determination..."

Putting the vial back into its box, she placed it carefully in the lower drawer of her bedside table and locked it.

A few days later, Two stood with the rest as Frisk's casket was slowly lowered into the ground. Alphys and Papyrus were consoling Toriel. Sans was standing at the far back of the group with Asriel and Asgore. After everything was over, Two left the group of monsters to mourn for their dear human while she returned back into the Underground. She stopped by Alphys' laboratory, Undyne's home and the skelebrothers' home along the way.

Once she was back in the house, she left Asgore's, Toriel's and Asriel's letters on the table in the kitchen. Then, she went upstairs to retrieve the vial. Reaching into her pocket, she put the cellphone Alphys had made for her on the bed. The vial went into her pocket. She left, after that.

She had one last thing to do.

"You've been awfully quiet," Two told ( Y / N ).

'There's nothing I can say.'

"Well, it's all going to end soon, anyway," she muttered.

"...Everything will be okay... after I Reset."

'Will that fix everything?'

"It will bring back Frisk, at least."

'...'

Once she was outside, the sky was already dark. Circling around the entrance, she began climbing down the mountainside.

The others should have found her letters by now.

She was a coward. She knew that. She couldn't even bring herself to tell them the truth face-to-face after all.

Settling down beneath a random tree in the forest, she opened the glass vial.

"It's been nice knowing you. I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise to you."

'...I won't remember you, won't I?'

Two smiled.

"No, you won't."

Without a sliver of hesitation, she drank it all down and activated a Reset.

.  
.  
.

Invoking a Reset always unsettled her deeply.

There would be this tug at her Soul and the next thing she knew, she would be floating in darkness. Again.

Though, there was something comforting about the darkness this time around. If she was here, then she didn't need to face reality yet. She could pretend this was all just a dream, that everything would return to normalcy when she opened her eyes again.

Lying down, she let herself be carried by the currents that flowed through this place. Closing her eyes, she slowly fell asleep, body and limbs and all buoyed by the fluid-like substance that filled this endless space.

.  
.  
.

Elsewhere, in a darkened hospital room, ( Y / N ) laid unmoving atop a bed, eyes staring blankly at the ceiling hanging over her.

.  
.  
.

The sight of the mountain forest and a bloodied Chara laying on the ground at his feet, vanished in a flurry of colours as Sans felt a very familiar tug at his very Soul.

'...A Reset...?!'

The ground beneath his feet disappeared, and soon, he was falling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .  
> .  
> .
> 
>  **Warning(s)** : blood, character death, vulgar language (sort of)
> 
> .  
> .  
> .


	11. After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life goes on...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I fixed something in the last three lines of the previous chapter - check it out.

When he landed back on his feet again, Sans found himself standing in Snowdin Forest with a small, cloth-covered basket clenched in one hand.

Glancing down at it, he recognised it immediately.

"This is... Toriel's."

He didn't need to check the date on his phone. He remembered _exactly_ when this had happened.

It was the first week of a stressful, few-month-long period where Papyrus wasn't even around most of the time to lecture Sans for lazing around. With the spike in kidnappings that happened in the last several months, Papyrus and Undyne had their work cut out for them - what with all the active cases and raids they had to be involved in. Sans wasn't affected by this because Asgore didn't include Sans in raids unless absolutely necessary - it had been a personal request from the skeleton himself.

This was also the one time where Papyrus couldn't come and visit Toriel and Frisk because he had work to do, so Sans went alone. Toriel had packed him some of her butterscotch-cinnamon pie to take home for them to share when Papyrus got back from work.

This was around seven months back in the previous timeline wasn't it? If he remembered correctly, it was winter-time on the Surface.

'The Reset took us further back again, huh...'

This was the first time this particular save file was activated, too. He'd never started a new timeline from this location and time before.

He briefly entertained thoughts of who could have been behind the Reset this time when the events of a few days ago (in that other timeline) came rushing back.

'Frisk!'

Without sparing another thought, he teleported directly to their doorstep.

He frantically knocked on the door. They went _back_ in the timeline again. Frisk should be fine, but he still couldn't help but feel-

The door swung open.

"Oh, Sans, back so soon? Did you leave something behind by accident...?"

Toriel had been the one to answer the door. Sans easily slipped into one of his practised, relaxed grins. On the inside, however...

"Nah, I just remembered that I needed to talk to Frisk about something. Can I come in?" He was already walking in before Toriel said yes. It wasn't like she was going to refuse him anyway.

"Of course! Frisk is in their room upstairs," she replied, shutting the front door close.

"Thanks, Tori." He watched as Toriel turned and headed back to the kitchen before he began climbing the stairs two steps at a time.

Grasping the doorknob, he found it was unlocked. Opening the door to their room, he saw Frisk sitting on their bed, silent and unmoving. The shock was written all over their face. Sans slowly and quietly shut the door behind him. He locked it. Wordlessly, he walked up to Frisk and wrapped them up in a tight hug.

"It's okay, you're alive. Everything's _fine_ ," he whispered.

He repeated that like a mantra even as Frisk began trembling.

"Mom's face... She looked s-so sad... I thought I would never see her again..."

After Frisk had calmed down, Sans left the room and returned with a tray of tea and cookies. Frisk smiled gratefully at that and took one of the butter cookies from the plate before nibbling on it. Sans took one for himself, too.

"Feeling better?"

Frisk nodded, still munching on the cookies. They clearly liked them. Sans deliberately chose their favourites. It also helped that these were infused with some Toriel's magic and love.

"Alright then, I'll let you rest now. I'll drop by another day and-"

"No, tell me what you learnt now," Frisk interjected. Their eyes were blazing with Determination. Sans wasn't exactly sure if that was the effect of their own Determination or the magic-infused cookies or both. Regardless, at least they were feeling better now.

"...No," he said, shaking his head. "Not today, at least." He needed to do something first.

"Sans, you have that look on your face again - you're going to do something reckless again, aren't you?" Frisk arched an eyebrow.

Sans did a one-shoulder shrug here. "Perhaps." He couldn't meet Frisk's brown eyes. He turned to study a crack in the wall instead.

"Sans..." Frisk responded, slightly frustrated at being ignored like that.

"..."

"I want to know what happened afterwards," Frisk said, almost pleading. "Please tell me. I _need_ to know."

"Frisk..." Sans looked up - that was his mistake.

Frisk shot him a look that clearly said that they weren't going to give up. He caved in.

"Fine. Let's start from the beginning..." Sans sighed.

Frisk patted the empty space beside them on their bed. Sans took the offered seat. He plucked another cookie off the tray and practically inhaled it. Sans was the one who needed the boost in spirits from the cookies now, not Frisk. Despite everything, Frisk calmly poured themselves a cup of tea - even though Frisk didn't have enough Determination to Reset and control save files anymore, they still had more than enough to bounce back from whatever that's thrown their way. Sans couldn't help but admire that sometimes.

Sans began describing the events after Frisk got shot. He tried to distance himself as much as he could from everything, keeping everything objective and entirely factual.

"The bullets they used were specially crafted to negate healing magic. Those bullets cost an arm and a leg. Typically, a single shot using such a bullet would be enough to take out the intended target, but they didn't shoot just once - they shot three times. No suspects were found - the attacker or attackers fled the scene without leaving any trace behind," Sans said, tone monotonous.

"I was going to use my shortcuts to track the attacker down, but then ( Y / N ) and Chara began interacting strangely."

"Strangely?"

"( Y / N ) immediately singled out Chara as the person behind the whole thing. While Chara hadn't been surprised at all by the attack, that shouldn't have been enough for ( Y / N ) to arrive at that conclusion... So, she must know something we don't. She accused Chara of organising the attack and Chara did not deny it. Everyone nearby heard it."

Frisk gasped. "...Does this mean _that_ Chara is back...?" Frisk turned crestfallen. "I thought they'd changed for the better..." they muttered under their breath. "What does this mean, then?"

"It means that our worst fears have been confirmed; Chara is still the same. We're not in some timeline where the Chara we knew didn't exist. They're **_back_**."

Sans sighed.

"Well, on the brighter side of things, at least I don't have to stop myself from killing them now." As he said this, his eye flickered cyan.

Frisk frowned disapprovingly but did not say anything.

Sans continued. "What they talked about after that will surprise you though. Chara was talking about Resets with ( Y / N ) and she understood _everything_."

"( Y / N ) has the ability to Reset as well?!"

"And it seems to me that she has used it more than once, too."

"So, what are you going to do after this?"

"I'll be looking for ( Y / N ), of course. She's still an unknown variable in all of this, but we need to find out exactly what she knows. After that, I'll be tracking Chara. Who knows what they're up to."

"...You're not going to hurt ( Y / N ) or anything right?" Trust Frisk to ask the hard questions.

"What? No, of course not!" Sans raised his hands placatingly. "I won't try anything, but I will defend myself if _she_ tries anything though."

"Do you think she was the one who had been triggering a Reset all this time?"

"...It's possible."

They both stared back at each other silently.

"We're really in over our heads, huh...?"

Sighing, Sans just nodded.

.  
.  
.

Sans made a quick stop at home to pick up some things and get some food in his non-existing stomach - cookies can only fill you up so much after all - before leaving once more.

He didn't really feel like taking his shortcuts, so he walked. Through the Underground, through the forest and into the Human Kingdom.

Hopping from rooftop to rooftop, Sans scanned the sight before him.

The city stretched almost infinitely in all directions, doused in pale moonlight. The regions furthest from the city centre weren't pretty to look at, but it was where Sans lurked most often. There was just something about the place that didn't make him feel uneasy. It was probably because this place - its people, its emotions, its life - seemed most familiar.

Even now, the grandeur and the perfectness of the city centre - where the rich and powerful resided - in the Human Kingdom still perturbed him. It was just too _perfect_. It stuck out horribly from this landscape of despair and death and fear.

Everyone who didn't live there avoided that place. That place was a different playing board altogether. It was a cesspool of blood-soaked wealth, power and corruption - Rei's own words; and she lived in the Human Kingdom her entire life.

The shattering of glass and the sounds of fighting broke out in an alleyway somewhere below him, but Sans kept his gaze forward and carried on.

"What the hell am I even doing here..." he muttered under his breath as he leapt over to another rooftop below.

_'We're really in over our heads, huh...?'_

Frisk's words echoed in his head. They were right - all of this was really beyond their power to change - but they were trying their hardest anyway.

It just... wasn't enough.

Hardly anything they did was enough. Every time they advanced one step, they were forced back two steps with every problem that surfaced. At this point, the questions and problems seemed never-ending and there were hardly any answers or solutions in sight. He clenched his hand tightly into a fist. If only...

"...you were here, Gaster. You'd know what to do," Sans whispered. "You always did."

That man helped to ensure the survival of the entire Monster race in the Underground with his intelligence and genius solutions to problems no one else had solutions for. He'd surely have something to say about all these timelines and Resets and-

If he were still around, Sans would have asked him for help long ago-

But he wasn't. So, they were all on their own - he and Frisk.

Shaking away these depressing thoughts, he continued moving around through the city suburbs.

Once he had the building he'd been looking for in his sights, he approached it from the rooftop down. The door at the top wasn't even locked - lucky him.

Pulling the hood over his skull, he zipped it up before taking the stairs down to the fifth floor. It was only a fourteen-story building and he knew the staircase didn't have any cameras monitoring them. The hallways did, however. When he reached the fifth floor, he took one deep, calming breath and relaxed his form as much as he could.

'You are not out of place. You're visiting a friend who lives here,' he told himself. He checked his hoodie's zipper and adjusted his hood once more.

He pushed the door open.

He kept his head down and angled away from the cameras at the end of the hallways. His eyes flitted about from doorplate to doorplate-

'There!'

He quickened his pace. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the nearby doors open. He rapped his knuckles - thankfully, he'd worn gloves tonight - on the door. As he was waiting for the door to open, footsteps sounded behind him and promptly stopped.

"...Excuse me, do you live on this floor?" a male voice said from over his shoulder.

'Fuck.'

Sans didn't dare turn around. Just as he was about to reply, the door in front of him swung open.

It was almost comical how quickly Rei's expression changed from one of curiosity to one of pure incredulity.

"...Sans?"

A neutral expression overcame her features and she turned to the person behind Sans.

"Oh, hey there Alex. Do you need something?"

"Huh? Oh, I was just wondering about this guy standing like that in front of your place, that's all. You know him?" They both turned to look at him.

Rei reached over and tugged down his hood even more, obscuring his face from view. His hood must have slipped back a little earlier.

She nodded with a smile. "Yep. He's a close friend of mine. He's, erm..." She glanced back at Sans. "...Is it alright if I told him?" she whispered. Sans nodded, going along with it.

"He's not very fond of showing his face around in public. Chemical burns. Old accident. People stare, ya know?" Rei lied. It was very convincing, Sans had to admit.

"Oh, shit. Sorry there little man. I was just looking out for my neighbour. You know how it is these days... you never know," this Alex fellow explained. He really did seem apologetic about it. "Anyway, take care you two."

"Yeah, you too."

Alex walked away, leaving the two of them alone in the hallway.

Rei stepped aside to let Sans in.

Once behind closed doors, Rei turned to Sans with a look that could freeze Antarctica twice over.

"Sans... care to explain this?"

"S-Sorry. I just needed to ask you for a favour."

"Couldn't it have waited until morning?"

Sans didn't need to reply. His expression was enough of an answer. Rei heaved a long sigh before collapsing onto the couch in the living room. She reached out with her right hand for the pillow laying by the arm of said couch before screaming into it.

Sans just stood there, flabbergasted, listening to the muffled screaming. In the time Rei was doing that, he took a look around.

The living room was small - it had just enough space to fit a two-seater couch in the middle, a bookshelf by the door and, behind the couch, crates of what Sans knew, with every magical fibre of his very being, was alcohol. Either that, or the alcoholic soft drink - whatever it was called - that she loved so much.

When she was done, she looked up, shot Sans a look of exasperation before scooting over to one side of the couch. She patted the empty seat beside her.

"...I can never figure you out, Sans. Every time I think that I've come close to figuring you out, you pull shit like this and send me back to square one. You're an asshole sometimes, you know that? And how do you even know where I live?!"

"You're extra snarky today. Did something happen?" Sans sat down on the couch.

"...Upper management happened. Honestly, I have never wished - so hard - for a group of people to get their shit together and think using their brains for once. They're going to get _all_ the new recruits killed at this rate!" Rei sighed. Without turning around, she reached to the other side of the couch and pulled out a bottle.

"Want one? Heh, why am I even asking. You don't drink before work da-"

"Yeah," Sans replied, interrupting her.

Rei stared, wide-eyed at the skeleton monster.

"You see! This is what I meant by- Oh, forget it. Let's just drink the night away and we'll talk about whatever you need from me tomorrow, alright?" Rei passed him a bottle.

"Sounds good to me." Sans could use a drink now. Without really thinking about it, he uncapped it and immediately chugged down half of the bottle's contents.

Goddamn the burn felt good.

"...Hey, I know it's just beer but c'mon. Don't put me to shame here - I have a reputation to uphold!" was all Rei said before she proceeded to gulp down the contents of the entire bottle in a similar fashion.

They haphazardly threw their bottle somewhere behind the couch.

"I have some nice liquor stored in the kitchen, but I'm saving that for a truly shitty day. You're not asking me for a truly shitty favour, are you?"

"Nah, I think you'll have fun doing it actually."

"Alright then. You look like a mess - so drink up!"

They were going to regret this the next morning.

.  
.  
.

And here comes the regret.

"...Ughhhh... Why..."

"Why indeed. Ask your past self Sans. He agreed." Rei put down some aspirin and a glass of water on the arm of the couch where Sans' head was lying against.

"How do you... not have a... hangover after... that?"

"Because you're the one who raided my shelves for all the whiskey they had. I don't know whether this would work or not but, take the aspirin, Sans," she said, gesturing to the pills and water. "I'm heading out for a bit. Call me if you need any-"

Sans reached out and grabbed her arm before she could move away. He pushed a folded slip of paper into her hand.

"I... owe you one, o...kay?" Sans slurred. His speech and body language practically screamed 'hangover' but...

The stare he was giving her had her riveted in its intensity. She wasn't even sure if he knew that his left eye-socket was flaring blue.

She smiled back. "I've got your back just like you have mine, no?"

For some absurd reason, that put a pained grimace on his face. She had no idea what that meant, though, deep down, she felt like she should. She smiled sadly.

"Go back home to Papyrus, Sans. Let him take care of you."

That definitely hit the nail.

Sans curled in on himself and snuggled deeper into the pillows and blanket on the couch. He had, quite literally, wrapped himself up into a ball of blankets and pillows.

Rei sighed as she unfolded the piece of paper.

"..."

She looked back at Sans. Then back at what was written on the paper. She folded it back up and slipped it into her pocket.

She left, after that. The door locked with a click.

Sans wasn't wrong about her possibly liking the job he'd given her.

"Seriously, Sans... Resorting to kidnapping from kidnappers now?"

Once she was outside her apartment, she pulled out the slip of paper from earlier and her lighter. She set the paper on fire and dropped it onto the asphalt road.

The flame burnt brightly as it consumed the paper, leaving nothing but ashes in its wake.


	12. Forty-One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, you need to learn the past to understand the present.

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When she woke up, it was to endless darkness.

Sitting up, she turned to look around. If she squinted, she could see the faint outlines of moving masses of... something in this space. Its motion was always fluid-like. If she tried to catch it with her hands, they just seemed to phase right through them.

"You're back again."

In this space - whatever it was called - there was no telling what was up or what was down. The voice - distinctly male - seemed to drift from all directions.

"You keep returning and leaving with no apparent side-effects... Fascinating..."

She spun around, trying to find the source of the voice, to no avail.

Two hands settled on her shoulders from behind, holding her still and keeping her from floating around in circles.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. You'll just end up dizzy and completely disoriented afterwards - not a very pleasant experience, if you were to ask me."

The weight on her shoulders lifted after a moment and she immediately turned around to have a better look at this person.

A skeleton-like monster clad in a dark cloak was smiling back at her. He had cracks on parts of his skull near his eye-sockets. He... seemed friendly, despite it all.

"...Hi?" she said.

"And she replies, yes! Finally, it seems my methods have been successful..."

The strange skeleton was talking to himself now. He talked using strange terms that made absolutely no sense to her at all.

"...Erm..."

"Oh, sorry about that. I tend to do that - or so I've been repeatedly told in the past. Anyway, what are you doing here?"

She blinked at that.

"I-I..."

"That wasn't a good way to start a friendly conversation, wasn't it? Oh darn, erm. Okay, okay, allow me to try again. What's your name?"

She hesitated.

"Erm... I'm not really comfortable with sharing that."

He took a moment to process that before nodding in apparent understanding. "No, no, it's perfectly fine. That's a rather smart move from you actually. You don't belong to our world. Anything that can tie you to that place permanently should be avoided as far as possible."

The surprise must have been obvious on her face. He noticed the expression she was wearing and laughed cheerfully. "Surprised? Don't be. I'm an expert in this sort of thing." He waved it off as if the matter was of little importance.

"Everything I've observed of you since you first came here has led me to conclude that you're one of the phenomena I'd been researching on before," he elaborated, though it wasn't exactly very helpful.

"A-Are you a scientist?"

"Yes, I am! Or was, rather. I was quite brilliant one, too, if I do say so myself," he proudly proclaimed. "My name is W. D. Gaster - you may refer to me as Dr. Gaster."

"...Uh, okay?"

"Brilliant! This is going much more smoothly than last time," the being named Gaster said.

"'Last time?' What do you mean by that?"

"You're not the first one to come through the Void. Many others have briefly visited this place - very few stayed to chat, really. Those who did... Well, I hadn't always managed to communicate with them directly."

"So, this place is called the Void, eh?" She looked around at the vast nothingness of this place.

"Indeed. A fitting name, no? The Void exists between the fabric of space and time - if you're here, you exist and yet do not exist at the same time. It's impossible to determine the state of your existence when you're here," Gaster explained almost cryptically.

"Is that so..." she muttered, sensing the end of the conversation topic. Both of them fell into silence.

"Since we're on the matter of names..." Gaster began, causing her to look back up at him. "...Why don't we come up with a name for you as well?"

"F-For me?" she stuttered out.

"What else am I supposed to call you, then?" He paused to roll his eyes here. "Is there any name that you like?"

"No, not really," she admitted with a frown. When Gaster frowned, a spark of purple magic burst into life beside him before immediately fading out of existence.

She stared at the spot where the spark of magic was, mouth agape with surprise.

"Hmmmmm, well, in that case, I'm just going to call you, 'Two'."

Now, she stared back at Gaster with incredulity.

The filter between her brain and mouth mustn't be working because she said the first thing that came to mind.

"...You have a horrible taste in naming," she deadpanned. Gaster flinched back and feigned being struck in the chest.

"Even here, someone thinks my naming sense is distasteful - how horrible..." he said, suddenly depressed.

"Overly dramatic, too."

"I am not! I merely creatively express my feelings some times - that's not a crime now, is it?" Gaster said in an unnecessarily loud voice.

"Has anyone ever told you to keep your voice down?"

"How rude! You can't just say that to people!"

"Well, you can't just go around giving the names of numbers to people, either!"

"But, it's not just any random number..." he muttered, pouting.

'My god, is this guy really a scientist?' That very thought ran through her mind at that very instant.

And that was how it all started, really.

This Gaster fellow seemed really lonely and was happy to answer her questions. He answered all the questions she had about the Void and about the world he came from. Strangely, he refrained from asking any questions about the world _she_ came from. She was glad for that though - she wasn't sure how to go about answering those.

The only questions he didn't really answer were ones that were related to his personal past. From what little he had told her, it seemed like he ended up in the Void by accident. That... was a horrible way to go. And to think he was going to be stuck here for all eternity...

"Anyway, enough about Humans and Monsters and the world I came from. Let's talk about you." As he said this, he sat down on the 'ground' cross-legged and motioned for her to do the same.

She was slightly taken aback by the sudden change of topic but went with it anyway.

"I know you have no reason to believe me when I say this, but... you really need to get out of that place where they have been keeping you locked up." Gaster raised a hand here to stop her from interrupting. "Humans can be extremely greedy creatures - given enough time, they will steal your existence - your Soul - and your abilities for their own purposes."

"...How do you know that...?" she asked and his expression became gravely serious.

"Like I told you, I've been researching on you and your kind - the Anomaly - for a great number of years. Individuals like you... have abilities that we don't. I don't think you're fully aware of it, but you can actually manipulate anything in the world I came from. Everything in it is like streams of data to you - streams that you can bend and alter to your will. I haven't seen you do that to escape yet, so I can only assume that some external force or something must be preventing you from using your abilities when you're there... It's either that, or... you don't know how to consciously do it in your current form in that world."

"...So, which is it?"

How? How did he _know_?

"Y-You _deduced_ all of this...?"

"You'll be amazed at what you can learn from careful observation alone. Anyway, so which is it?" he said, easily brushing off the comment she had made about his intelligence.

"...It's the latter, I think," she admitted eventually. Seeing no point in withholding information, she continued, "I haven't actually _tried_ doing those things you said, actually. Even before all of this, it wasn't my intention to come to your... world. I-I don't even know how I ended up in that world in the first place, actually..."

"I know, and I believe you," Gaster said. When she remained quiet, Gaster continued.

"They're trying to steal your abilities by having someone - a vessel - absorb your Soul by merging their Soul with yours. The only problem for them, so far, is that you've been winning because your Soul is stronger than most others. Then, there's also the problem of finding a vessel whose body can hold the merged Souls without disintegrating - this is because your Soul destroys most living Human bodies for whatever reason. However, vessels failing to work won't be the case forever. Sooner or later, a compatible vessel with a stronger Soul will come along..."

She shuddered at the memory.

"...Whatever you do, make sure such a Soul - or any Soul, for that matter - does not ever come close to absorbing yours - no matter the consequences. You know what will happen."

"And you think that it's a better idea for _me_ to have it instead? You don't even know me." she argued back, trying to find what his motives were behind all of this.

"Can you imagine a Human or a Monster suddenly gaining god-like powers to manipulate the people and the world around them? Even in the best case scenario, where the person uses their powers to do _good_ , there will **_always_** be _someone_ who'd want that power for themselves for their own malicious purposes. What do you think will happen then?"

"...It'd be pure chaos."

"Precisely. If you keep them, all we have to do is find a way for you to return to _your_ world, taking those abilities back with you. Besides, from what I've seen, you don't hold any truly malicious intent, so all is well."

It was easier said than done, though.

"Just keep yourself out of reach from any Soul. You can try to do the possessing instead, but your chances of finding a compatible body is very slim."

Something occured to her then and she voiced her thoughts aloud, "If I take over their body, won't that kill the person I'm trying to possess?"

"Usually, yes. If the body _is_ compatible, you may try co-existing with said person's Soul - a sort of half-possession - but, the other person has to be amenable to it - or, in other words, willing to _not_ put up a fight - which is highly unlikely. If the body is not even compatible in the first place, then you would have just effectively killed that person - because the body will start breaking down from the instant you try possessing it."

"I only just met you - why are you helping me by telling me all of this?"

Gaster stared at her for a long while before finally replying.

"That's of my concern - not yours." Gaster said. In his eye-sockets, sparks of purple magic came to life. "Due to circumstances, it would benefit me if I were to help you, and hence, that is what I'm trying to do."

'Well, that's helpful...' she sarcastically remarked in her head.

"You should get going," Gaster said suddenly.

"Eh?"

"Load up your save file and continue whatever you were doing before. I'll still be around if you need more help and my insight, don't worry."

"...I don't even know how I ended up here like this, really."

"I may have had a hand in that... Don't mull over it, it's only a minor detail. Load up the timeline and get to work. You have things you want to accomplish, don't you?"

"You know, it's almost creepy how you know all these things," she said, standing back up on her own feet. Gaster did the same.

He smirked. "I'm always observing. Remember that." He grabbed Two by the shoulders, spun her around and gave her light push in some random direction away from him.

"Damn it, don't just push me aroun-"

When she turned around, Gaster was nowhere to be seen.

Then, the 'ground' beneath her feet cracked slightly. The web of white cracks seemed to grow outward from where she stood. She didn't have the time to dwell on it because in front of her, a familiar menu appeared.

"Well, might as well get it done and over with."

She hit the Load button.

Returning to that place was a horrible experience - having all feeling of her 'body' disappearing all at once was nightmarish. Losing her body meant losing her eyes and thus her sight as well, so she couldn't even see the faces of the people who had done this to her. She didn't know exactly how it was possible for her to have a 'body' in the Void but not here - though she suspected that Gaster had something to do with it.

As a stranded Soul without a body, she only saw the world only in 'Souls'. The positions of the hearts seemed to relate to real-world physical distance, though she couldn't be absolutely sure. Her current position in the real-world was somewhere really high up above the other Souls - which sort of meant that her Soul was probably being placed in a container on a shelf or something. After all, Gaster had said that Souls - even Human ones - typically don't last very long on their own - so they need to be kept in special containers, or something like that.

Speaking of Souls...

There was this brilliant red Soul some distance in front of her right now on the ground below. She recognised this one - the person with this Soul seemed to frequent the place often. This one red heart seemed to glow brighter than all the others, which was probably what made her remember this person's Soul in particular. The others were a range of various colours and luminosity but none could compare to this red Soul.

'Was this Soul strong enough to absorb mine...?' If she had a body, she'd have shuddered at the thought.

The red Soul moved and disappeared out of sight. The world seemed a bit dimmer now.

She went back to people-watching - or, in her case, Soul-watching. It was all she could do to pass the time.

Countless hours must have passed when they finally decided to start forcefully merging her Soul into other Souls.

Witnessing all of this all over again, she thought about what Gaster had said and slowly, she came to the realisation that Gaster's theory of how these people might be trying to _steal_ her abilities became more and more probable. The next big question to find an answer for was: "how the hell did they know she had these 'abilities' in the first place?"

The first few dozen Souls all instantly died - their bodies started breaking down soon afterwards - and, each and every time, she ended up being roughly 'grabbed', using magic, from whatever that remained of the body and thrown back into whatever receptacle they must have been keeping her Soul in.

It disgusted her to know that some Humans were willing to sink so low as to do this.

But, she couldn't do anything about it in her current, powerless state.

And so, she waited and hoped that the right person came along.

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"It worked! Hahahaha..." one of the madmen began laughing. That laugh made her blood boil. She screamed at him in anger, but all that came out past the respirator they put on her was a muffled gurgle. She swung the only limb she had left at the wall of glass that separated her from the outside.

Couldn't they see the body wasn't fully compatible? It wasn't going to last like this!

"Oh, looks like _someone's_ angry. We're one step closer to making God - you should be honoured that you've been lucky enough to be selected by us to be a part of this!"

'...He thought _she_ was dead...?' It dawned on her then.

'They... don't realise that _I'm_ the one still in control... Just because the body didn't break down into a pile of mush, they think _my_ Soul was the one that got absorbed...?'

He turned to the other scientists. "Use the LD and LM we have stored up to restore that half-broken vessel. I don't care how much LD and LM you use - just get it done."

One female at the back spoke up, "B-But sir, if we do that, there's a high probability that the body might just break down anyway. We don't know how the three components might react if we increased the LD and LM concentrations any further-"

"The current recipe hasn't caused any problems now, has it? So, do it - this is an order." No one objected and they all scurried off to do what they were told.

The timeline was repeating itself. At this rate, the explosion was going to happen again.

"I'm putting the subject to sleep for now," someone else said. After a minute or so, she began feeling sleepy.

When she woke up, it was to multiple harsh vibrations coming from somewhere beyond the pod she was in. There was a dull burning sensation creeping all over her body. The room was dimly lit and the alarm lights were on. It took her a while to realise that she couldn't hear anything.

She slowly raised a hand to touch her ears only to find them gone.

The burning sensation from before turned into liquid fire as it began rapidly coursing through her veins. She screamed and screamed until she could no more. She briefly entertained the thought of smashing her head against the glass wall, but she couldn't muster enough effort to do so. She didn't know how long it took, but after some time, her mind became numb to the pain. The burning was obviously still there, but her mind helpfully conjured up some mental fog to suppress it somehow, leaving her in this half-conscious, unmoving state.

'...It hurts, it hurts... Someone... Anyone...'

It was some time after that that this strange skeleton Monster flew up - riding on another skull-like Monster - to take a closer look at her. His face was slightly scrunched up with worry and pity. She could only barely see him through the hazy liquid. With as much force as she could, she tried moving closer.

The liquid fire in her veins burned stronger.

"Run..." she tried to say. "Run!"

'This place is going to explode!'

Now that she was closer to the glass, she could see better. Suddenly, the skeleton Monster summoned another one of those floating skulls and fired a blast of energy somewhere towards the ground. She followed his line of sight.

The madman who issued the order from before was currently sprawled on the ground, bleeding to death from a gaping orifice carved out by that blast of energy that skull-thing shot out.

It seemed like they were talking, but she couldn't hear what they were saying.

All she could remember after that was the glass cracking - forming interconnected webs made of innumerable, tiny little fractures - and then-

-nothing.

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"Darkness is beginning to become a bit boring, isn't it?"

That cheerful voice of his was unbecoming of the situation, goddamnit. Echoes of pain still reverberated through her - body twitching and spasming even though the source of the pain was already gone. That level of pain - over and over again - would have driven anyone crazy and sent people spiralling into despair by now, but...

There was no way she was going to give up now. She refused to die here like _this_.

Sitting up, she shot a glare at the overly-excited ex-scientist. What the hell was he so excited about?

"I just suffered a very painful death and hundreds of thousands died along with me - can't you be less cheerful about it?" she said, glaring.

Gaster gave her an indecipherable look.

"You seem to be coping fine. You Reseted as you died - that timeline didn't become reality - so no permanent damage was done," he said. His tone was a bit too carefree for her to accept so easily. Regardless, she kept quiet about it, knowing that bringing it up wouldn't change anything.

"Waiting and hoping can only do you so much good. I, on the other hand, have come up with a plan that will work - are you willing to listen?"

"A plan that will work?"

"Indeed. All you need to do is just force possession on those scientists working there. Chances are, you will end up indirectly killing all of them - saving hundreds of thousands of lives, as you said earlier."

"You want me to kill people?" she hissed, appalled. "How is that even a good idea? Surely they could be innocent in all of this? They were just taking orders!"

"It's for the greater good, you silly child. Stop clinging on to the notion of somehow fixing all of this without any casualties whatsoever on either side - it's not going to work that way," Gaster replied condescendingly.

Gritting her teeth, she argued back, "I won't kill people!"

"What will it take to convince you?" Gaster crossed his arms, clearly annoyed. "Will the knowledge that those scientists are conducting human experimentation in that place persuade you otherwise?"

That stopped the barrage of insults that she had been about to hurl at him.

"You'll be helping all the victims by doing this. You should reconsider."

"...I won't. I'll just find another way somehow," she forced out. She knew her odds would be slim.

Gaster said nothing in reply. He seemed a bit disappointed.

"I thought you were someone with whom I could discuss matters logically. It seems I've misjudged you."

"..."

"Regardless... I wish you the best of luck. It was nice having someone to talk to after all this time. Although it was only for a short time, I enjoyed your company."

Did that mean she wasn't going to meet him anymore? She opened her mouth to say something but he beat her to it.

"Farewell, Two."

"W-Wait-"

He turned his back on her and disappeared just like that. She spun around to see if he was nearby - because maybe he had just done one of teleport tricks again - but he was nowhere to be found.

A menu appeared in front of her. All that was left for her to do was try again.

...What other choice did she have?

She pressed her hand to the 'Load' button and vanished from the Void.

A distance away, Gaster had used his magic to make himself invisible as he watched on silently even as Two returned to that world for another vain attempt at escaping and fixing things.

"An endless cycle of pain, suffering and despair..." Gaster began muttering to himself. "Not even the most Determined person out there could come out of this perfectly sane after a number of cycles... Just what the hell are you planning, Chara?"

Deciding that direct intervention was now necessary, Gaster teleported to the edge of the Void where the boundary was.

At the boundary, he was close enough to observe and interfere using magic if he absolutely needed to. He had hoped to be able to convince Two that some... mercy killing was necessary, but it seemed Two was more stubborn than he'd expected.

Since Two was so unwilling to kill, he had no choice but to do it for her instead.

But first, he had to locate a Human who had higher concentrations of magic in their Soul. Between searching and killing, he wasn't one hundred percent certain that he was going to have enough time to get both objectives accomplished. The killing part was laughably easy. The searching part, however, wasn't quite as straightforward.

For Two's sake - and everyone else's, he hoped luck was on their side.

As he began wandering the world as an apparition, seeing people up and about - laughing, breathing and enjoying life - got him wondering about the friends he had been forced to leave behind.

'Sans.'

A singular name surfaced, unbidden. He hoped Sans wasn't still blaming himself for what had happened - it had been an accident resulting from his own foolishness; Sans had no involvement in it.

Large crowds obviously granted him a greater chance of finding a suitable vessel, and so he headed towards the shopping district where he knew there would be people. Scanning the crowd, he saw no one with enough magic in their Soul. Lady Luck was not smiling upon him, it seemed.

He tried again the next day, and the day after that, and every day after, until an entire month had passed.

By sheer coincidence, he found his target walking outside one day.

He followed her home. There, he made another discovery.

She had a _daughter_. But, most importantly, her daughter was young enough **_and_** had enough magic in her Soul.

Gaster grinned wide.

He felt nothing when he sent a bunch of Chara's own human traffickers down the girl's path.

Gaster personally thought that the fake aneurysm diagnosis was what really sealed the deal. He had to admit, the team of human traffickers Chara had assembled really knew their stuff.

It was an added bonus that the girl's parents were selfish bastards.

But, then again, who was _he_ to talk?

"She'll be number forty-two," the leader of the trafficking team said into his phone. "We had no trouble at all for this one - her parents willingly sold her off, after all!" He began laughing. Gaster turned to leave.

He had forty-one people to make disappear.

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End file.
